Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
