Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine 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 on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“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.”
