Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm 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 accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
