Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted 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 end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.
Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”
