Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.
Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, 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 end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”
