Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. 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 shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
