Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat 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 better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
