Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
