Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
