Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
