Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
