Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 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 play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt 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 guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
