Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. 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 frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout 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 defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
