🔗 Share this article

Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”