Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
