Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough 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 establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous 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 isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
