Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
