Allen Taken Down 8 Times as Late Pickoff Seals Fate of Bills in Defeat to Texans
Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”