Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
