Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
