Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“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 was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
