Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “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 opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”