Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe 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 improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late 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’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking 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 led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
