Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”