Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had 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 must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” 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 remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly 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 loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
