Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped 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.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
