Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played 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 held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
