Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late 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 also being delayed for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
