Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback 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 first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
