Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
