Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred 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 early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. 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 are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
