Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback 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 indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played 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 first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
