Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
