🔗 Share this article

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

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

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