Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
