Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved 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 give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
