Very little went well 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 interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.
Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.
After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.
We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”
Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field 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 wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”
Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
