Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
