Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.
Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
