🔗 Share this article

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

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

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

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

“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

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

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. 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 receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

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

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”