🔗 Share this article

Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got 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 additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated 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 many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

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 almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

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

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”