Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they pressure 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 play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general 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 fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
