Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in 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 previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
