Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.
And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.
The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.
After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.
“When 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 safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”
Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.
“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. 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 tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.
The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.
“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”
Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.
The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.
“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”
