Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
