Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat 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 remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit 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 healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated 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 this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
