Very 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 interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field 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 wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
