Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated 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 not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
