Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
