Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
