Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” 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 said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”