🔗 Share this article

Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. 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 on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 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 wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better 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 players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”