Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “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 quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
