Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
