Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high 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 last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit 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 previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
