Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
