Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
