🔗 Share this article

Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to 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 any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”