Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
