Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it 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 we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
