Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “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 we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just 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 wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
