Allen Taken Down Eight Times as Late Interception Seals Fate of Buffalo in Loss to Texans

Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again 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 the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”