Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
