Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. 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 contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” 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 opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
