Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough 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 on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game 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 earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
