Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
