Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead 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 tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team 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 this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
