Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is 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 need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver 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 New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
