Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
