Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, 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 hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
