Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack 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 frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
