Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling 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 Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“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.”
