Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 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 play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force 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 previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
