Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”