Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
