Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop 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 again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
