Allen takes blame after comeback attempt falls short in Buffalo's 23-20 loss to Houston

HOUSTON — Josh Allen took the blame Sunday after Buffalo’s comeback attempt came up short in a loss to the Houston Texans.

The quarterback was blunt about his need to improve after going 9 of 30 for a season-low 131 yards in the 23-20 defeat.

“Starts with making better decisions on my part,” he said. “I know I didn’t complete the ball at a high rate. I put the ball in harm’s way, especially in that first half.”

The Bills (3-2) lost for a second straight week after opening the season with three straight wins.

“This isn’t a defining moment in our season,” Allen said. “It’s a chance to learn and grow from this. That’s what we’re going to do.”

Buffalo coach Sean McDermott was complimentary of Allen despite his tough day.

“Josh is a great player,” he said. “I will take the ball in Josh’s hand any time.”

Allen struggled before halftime again Sunday, managing just 56 yards passing a week after throwing for 42 yards in the first half of a rout by the Ravens.

“We missed by a little bit,” he said “We were off slightly. That’s something I have to clean up. I’m proud of how we responded in the second half ... we gave ourselves a chance to win the football game.”

The Bills trailed 20-3 after a field goal early in third quarter before scoring 17 straight points, capped by a field goal, to tie it with about 3½ minutes to go.

The Bills cut the lead to 10 when James Cook scored on a 5-yard run with about nine minutes left in the third quarter.

Rookie Keon Coleman’s 49-yard reception on fourth-and-5 got the Bills within 20-17 on their next drive. Coleman slipped a tackle and then darted down the sideline before flipping into the end zone for his second TD this season.

The touchdown pass was the 231st in Allen’s career, tying him with Patrick Mahomes for the most by a player in his first seven seasons.

C.J. Stroud was called for intentional grounding to bring up fourth-and-15 and take the Texans out of field-goal range with less than a minute left.

A punt backed the Bills up to their 3 and they punted after three straight incomplete passes to give Houston one last chance.

“Overall, that’s on me,” McDermott said. “We’ve just got to do a better job. I have to do a better job in that situation.”

Dare Ogunbowale had a 5-yard run to set up Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 59-yard game-winning field goal as time expired.

“The end of game situation on offense … we were in a tough situation,” McDermott said. “They had three timeouts. They have a good field goal kicker. We needed to run the clock and move the chains, and that’s on me. We didn’t do that there and that’s my fault.”

Defensive end A.J. Epenesa said the team must remind itself not to “ride the roller coaster” of emotions during this difficult stretch.

“Right now, we’re at a low,” he said. “We’ve lost two games, but we’ve got to try to stay as consistent as possible. We’ve had a lot of success on this team. We do a lot of great things. It’s just us shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s us making mistakes, which is allowing these teams to beat us. We’ve got to clean those things up.”