Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. 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 eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few 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 sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t 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 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
