Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
