Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt 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 guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
