Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle 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 Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “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 guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
