Allen Taken Down Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Interception Dooms Bills in Loss to Texans

Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

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

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”