Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had 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 bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better 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 give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
