HOUSTON – Whether or not Josh Allen is ever going to become a functioning NFL quarterback is a question we won’t know the answer to for the foreseeable future because it’s way too early to come to any conclusions.

But five starts into his NFL career, we know this much: The No. 7 overall draft pick is in way over his head, and he’s not ready to play at this level. Quite frankly, I’m not sure he’s ready to play in a Power Five college football conference, something he did not do when he was having accuracy problems in the Mountain West playing against the likes of Utah State, Hawaii, and New Mexico for Wyoming.

Allen was awful Sunday, just as he’s been awful for most of the time he has played for the Bills in the first six games of 2018. And as if that wasn’t enough for Bills fans to suffer through during Buffalo’s disheartening 20-13 loss to Houston on Sunday, when he went down with an elbow injury in the third quarter, we were subjected to the ongoing nightmare that is Nathan Peterman, who gift-wrapped the Texans victory with a pick-six with 1:23 left to play.

Buffalo’s quarterback situation has reached the depths of the 1-12-1 team of 1968 when the Bills trotted out Dan Darragh, Ed Rutkowski and Kay Stephenson; or the 1-13 team of 1971 that had Dennis Shaw and James Harris; or the 2-14 teams of 1984 and 1985 that actually gave snaps to the likes of Joe Dufek, Matt Kofler and Bruce Mathison.

Tyrod Taylor, E.J. Manuel, Trent Edwards, Rob Johnson, Alex Van Pelt. Kelly Holcomb, J.P Losman, and Thad Lewis? You’d sign up for any of them right now. Well, maybe not Lewis.

The whiff on free agent signee A.J. McCarron began the domino effect that has led us to this point of despair. He was the guy Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane hand-picked to be the placeholder for the rookie they were about to draft, and his failure to even beat out that rookie, Allen, or Peterman, has created havoc for the Bills.

They had no backup plan, so they were forced to go with Peterman and Allen, and this is what we get. Two quarterbacks who have combined to complete 50.6 percent of their passes for an average of 152.8 yards per game (123.0 net yards when you factor 179 lost yards on 24 sacks) with three TDs and nine interceptions.

How this team has won two games with quarterbacking this bad is a clear indictment on just how terribly the Vikings played that day in Minnesota, and how equally inept the Titans were last week. Now, to be fair, Buffalo’s defense played great in both of those games, but it also played great Sunday and it wasn’t enough to overcome the comedy of errors on offense and special teams.

“We’ve got to have more respect for the football,” McDermott said regarding Peterman’s two late picks, the second of which sealed the deal in the final seconds. “I felt he tried to force the ball in those situations. You can’t do that.”

No, you can’t, so what McDermott needs to do is end this folly with Peterman. We may not know if Allen can play in the NFL, but we have known for a while, and were reminded again Sunday, that Peterman can’t play in the NFL.

With Derek Anderson here, it’s time to say goodbye to Peterman because enough is enough. He now has 35 career completions to his teammates, and nine to the other team, meaning picks. His career rating is less than 25, only slightly better than his interception percentage, which is now above 11 percent.

Here are a few other observations from the game:

Kelvin Benjamin, hitch a ride with Peterman

There was a pregame tweet from Jenna Cottrell of WHAM-TV (Channel 13) that sent a tidal wave through the Twitterverse. She, and as she later added, others as well, overheard Benjamin decline to run routes for Allen during the early portion of the warmup when some players come out to get extra work.

McDermott said he heard about it, but all he would say postgame is, “I’m going to look into it.”

Benjamin was asked about it after the game, and predictably, he was in full cover-up mode.

“I was out stretching and just running and just doing my pregame warmup,” he said. “Usually I’ll go over to Josh and get a couple balls before he goes in (to the locker room) because Josh goes in (earlier) than all the rest of the players to come in and do his routine. And right before I seen he was about to go in, he asked me, ‘You need anything.’ And I was like, ‘Nah, I’m good.’ Then he ended up leaving and I ended up leaving, but I guess she put the tweet out thinking like, this is a big break.

"I mean, you put stories out there like that and you know your page starts to get followers. I feel bad for you guys. I feel like that messes up reporting y’all put out there, the truth. That’s why players are so standoffish toward reporters. It sucks for y’all guys.”

Yeah, that’s what Cottrell was trying to do, stir something up. Sorry, but I’m going with what she heard. And given that Benjamin has 10 catches for 146 yards in six games this season, McDermott and Beane should go with her version, too, and ship this guy out of town.

Nothing special about the kicking teams

Given how the majority of kickoffs are downed in the end zone, and so few punts get returned because punters have become so good at hang time, special teams just aren’t as important as they used to be. Unless they endure a day like the Bills did, when special teams played a huge role in the outcome.

The Bills were abysmal as Ray-Ray McCloud’s fumbled punt set up a Texans touchdown, and a blocked punt led to a Houston field goal. On top of that, there were also three penalties.



“It’s disappointing, can’t do that,” McDermott said. “You’re not going to set yourself up for success when you play that type of game.”

What makes you want to scream is that the Bills pay so much attention to the bottom of their roster, and they choose players because of their ability to play special teams. I’ve railed against this for a while, that I’d rather they spend more time finding impact players for the offense and defense. But no, they always preach on special teams, and then we get a show like this one.

Defense deserved better

The defense was responsible for three points allowed. That’s how I look at this. Thanks to the special teams gaffes, Houston scored 10 points thanks to drive starts at the Buffalo 29 and 21, and then there was the Peterman pick-six that produced seven points for the Texans.

The only drive where the defense let down was Houston’s final offensive possession, when it allowed the Texans to drive 84 yards for the tying field goal. And even that was a win because after a pass interference penalty in the end zone put the ball on the 1, the Texans couldn’t punch it in and had to settle for a tying field goal.

The Texans had 219 yards all day. Buffalo forced three turnovers and had Deshaun Watson running for his life. Yeah, the defense deserved a better result.

“I think we felt we were better than them up front,” said linebacker Lorenzo Alexander, who had a huge game. “But we have to be able to finish games.”

Perhaps, but it would be nice if the offense could do the same, not to mention, ya know, start the game, too. “It is what it is,” Alexander said diplomatically. We don’t make excuses. We have to go out there and put our team in position to win games regardless of what’s going on on the other side of the ball.”

Extra points

► Play of the game: Leave it to Peterman to provide it in a negative way. In a tie game, with 1:23 left to go, that lollipop he threw out to the sideline to Johnathan Joseph handed a mostly undeserved victory to the Texans.

► Player of the game: Kyle Williams and Alexander share this honor. They are the two oldest players on the roster, and no one was better than them, which is a pretty sorry statement in regard to this roster. Alexander had 1.5 sacks and an interception, Williams had two sacks, one other QB hit and a forced fumble. They were part of a relentless pass rush that nearly won the game for the Bills.

► Unsung hero: Jordan Poyer continues to make plays, and his interception gave him three takeaways in the last three games. He and Micah Hyde might be the best safety tandem in the NFL.

► Injuries: Allen’s was the big one, an elbow injury that knocked him out of the game. OG Vlad Ducasse had to exit with a knee injury, and DE Trent Murphy missed some time with an ankle problem.

► What’s next: The Bills complete their three games in three weeks against the AFC South when they travel to Indianapolis to play Andrew Luck and the Colts. The Colts fell to 1-5 with their 42-34 loss to the Jets.

MAIORANA@Gannett.com

COMPLETE BILLS-TEXANS GAME COVERAGE

Maiorana: Bills' QB situation has hit rock bottom and Peterman and Benjamin need to go

Report card: Josh Allen and Nathan Peterman were both terrible

Game story: Bills defense can't overcome another awful offensive day

Interactive: Grade the Bills' performance against Houston

Final score and recap: Well, that escalated quickly

Injury: Josh Allen exits in third quarter with elbow injury

Special delivery: Bills special teams gifts points to Texans

Game photos: Houston Texans 20, Buffalo Bills 13