Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit 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’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking 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 best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
