Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” 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 field general 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 OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
