Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw 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 good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play 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 said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
