Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
