Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
