Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.
The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.
“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”
It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.
Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”
Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. 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 asked about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”
