Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. 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 unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
