Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out 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 career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
