🔗 Share this article

Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better 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 optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”