Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one 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 loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
