Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for 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 McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game 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 opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
