🔗 Share this article

Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

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

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”