Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must 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 on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.
Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
