🔗 Share this article Josh Allen Taken Down Eight Times as Late Pickoff Dooms Buffalo in Defeat to Houston Very little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans. And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss. The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate. Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining. We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.” Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured 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 quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.” Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday. “It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.” Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter. The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting. No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling 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 best chance.” Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score. The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch. “Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”