Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup 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 loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
