Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
