Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson 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.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought 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 went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
