Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more 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 defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
