Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 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’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell 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 personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
