Josh Allen Taken Down 8 Occasions as Late Interception Dooms Bills in Loss to Texans

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

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

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

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Josh 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 contacted so many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”