🔗 Share this article

Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape 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 OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”