Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent 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 earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
