Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen 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 isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
