Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered 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 quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
