Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down 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 producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup 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 earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”