🔗 Share this article

Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive 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 short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”