Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise 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 asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
