Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.
Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased 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 without 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 defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
