Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force 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 previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
