Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 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 compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier 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 taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
