Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy 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 sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy 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 delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
