Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. 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 line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson 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.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more 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 Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
