Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
