Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, 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 receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
