Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
