Allen Sacked 8 Occasions as Final-Minute Pickoff Seals Fate of Bills in Loss to Texans

Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver 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 the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”