Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, 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 came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more 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 loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
