Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had 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 defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
