🔗 Share this article

Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”