Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions 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,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “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 provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
