Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat 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’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
