Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly 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 loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
