Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
