Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
