Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss 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 team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
