Josh Allen Taken Down Eight Occasions as Late Pickoff Dooms Bills in Loss to Texans

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

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott 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 went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”