Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
