Allen Taken Down Eight Occasions as Final-Minute Interception Seals Fate of Bills in Loss to Houston

Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up 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 contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly 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 deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.

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

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