Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
