Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” 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 players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
