Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left 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 ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without 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 benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
