Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
