Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. 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 pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
