Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
