Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
