Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued 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 without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
