Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”