Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.
Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.
Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.
Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.
“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”
Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.
Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not 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 rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left 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 few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”
Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.
Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout 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 meeting.
No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”
Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.
The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.
In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”
