Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just 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 improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left 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 ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver 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 opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
