Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. 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 sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
