Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said 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 hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
