Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
