The desires and hopes of a complete group and fan base hung within the steadiness Thursday night time as Josh Allen hit the bottom arduous following a vicious sort out from behind.
Allen kicked his toes, showing in clear ache whereas teammates and ultimately members of the coaching employees gathered round him.
The reigning MVP ultimately walked it off and didn’t miss any time, however that play served as an omen for the rest of the street sport vs. the Texans.
Houston finally sacked Allen a career-high eight instances in its 23-19 upset of the Payments, offering a stern discover to the Payments about how briskly issues will go awry if they can’t shield their star higher.
“After they hit the quarterback 12 instances, I don’t like that, I don’t like that stat in any respect,” Payments coach Sean McDermott mentioned. “It’s not a wholesome solution to play or a wholesome solution to preserve our quarterback wholesome by the rest of the season. That’s simply not a great method proper there.”
Any probabilities the Payments have of ending their Tremendous Bowl drought begins and ends with their MVP quarterback, who elevates a comparatively common group of playmakers round him.
Buffalo had carried out an honest job of defending him this season getting into the sport, permitting simply 20 sacks by 10 video games, however the Payments’ hog mollies no-showed Thursday.
A ferocious move rush harassed Allen all night time, leading to a zero-touchdown, two-interception night time from the ex-Wyoming standout.
The scariest second got here on the aforementioned play when Will Anderson hit Allen from behind on a third-and-6 with Buffalo main, 6-3.
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Anderson drove Allen into the bottom, with Allen touchdown on his arms whereas hitting the bottom arduous. He mentioned he landed on his left shoulder and it went “a bit of numb on me.”
“It’s not enjoyable,” Allen mentioned. “I bumped into a pair (of sacks) myself, I obtained to be higher with throwing the ball away and dwelling to see one other down and letting us play some situational soccer and pinning them deep. Too many instances I used to be going backwards and gotta be higher on that.”
Whether or not that play affected Allen for the remainder of the sport is barely identified by the quarterback, however he had an uncharacteristic exhibiting, finishing simply 24-of-34 passes for 253 yards and dashing for under 20 yards.
He threw an interception on 4th-and-6 on the Houston 22-yard line with 24 seconds remaining to finish Buffalo’s probability of a come-from-behind win.
That poor exhibiting severely hampers he Payments’ probabilities of successful the division for a sixth straight season since they now sit two video games behind the Patriots within the AFC East, and New England has the tiebreaker.
The Payments sit within the sixth spot in a crowded AFC playoff image.
“They wished it at the moment,” Allen mentioned. “We had an opportunity to win it there on the finish and obtained to discover a approach.”
