Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high 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 TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
