Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
