Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. 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 left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
