Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against 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 defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved 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 a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit 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 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up 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 wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
