Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
