🔗 Share this article

Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”