Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield 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 once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
