Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” 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 remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout 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 loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
