Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
