Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play 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 sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved 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 players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
