Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.
The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” 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 in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.
It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.
In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
