Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”