Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed 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 endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” 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 unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
