Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches 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’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
