Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback'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 said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.
“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”
