Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted 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. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
