Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
