HOUSTON – Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott admitted that his game management was to blame for the Houston Texans getting the ball back in time for a winning 59-yard field goal on Sunday.

"That's on me, the end-of-game situation on offense," McDermott said after the 23-20 loss. "We're in a tough situation ... they were holding three timeouts; they got 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."

The Bills were tied at 20-20 with just 41 seconds left on the clock, and managed to force the Texans to punt after quarterback C.J. Stroud was called for intentional grounding. McDermott decided not to take the option of a 10-second runoff that could have been available with the penalty, but he said they did think about it.

After getting the ball back at the Buffalo 3-yard line with 32 seconds remaining, the Bills' offence had three straight incomplete passes by Josh Allen. ESPN Research found that the Bills are the only team in the last 45 years to be tied or leading in the final minute of the game, inside their own 5-yard line, and throw three straight passes.

"I love Josh with the ball in his hands -- you know I do," McDermott said. "And again, efficient offense was the right approach there and ... I didn't have us do that. And so again, we learned from that. Tough situation.

"... You go back and forth, and, hey, I probably should have run it on the first play and just said, 'Hey, where are we now?' Either way, we're probably going to have to move the chains one time, right? To not give them a chance. But again, those are situations and that's on me."

Allen's first pass to rookie Keon Coleman in tight coverage was incomplete. The receiver was called for offensive pass interference on the play, but the penalty was declined. With 27 seconds to go, on second down, Allen threw a long ball to Mack Hollins, but it fell to the ground just ahead of him. On third down with 21 seconds left, Allen threw to Curtis Samuel in the middle of the field, but he slipped and the ball bounced to the turf in front of him.

"Overall, again, that's on me," McDermott said when asked if he was onboard with the playcalls. "And so, we just gotta do a better job, I gotta do a better job in that situation."

Allen, as well as offensive linemen Connor McGovern and David Edwards, said they were on board with trying to be "aggressive" in that situation.

"Coach is going to trust us to go out there and do that," Allen said. "Obviously, would love to convert there and hindsight's 20-20, but yeah."

After a 13-yard punt return to the Texans' 41-yard line, Houston ran one play to gain 5 yards and set up a 59-yard field goal. On that play, Bills linebacker Dorian Williams didn't get onto the field until 12 seconds before the snap. After the game, cornerback Rasul Douglas said that he didn't think Williams knew what play they were calling.

"We were trying to go nickel defense, and Dorian was on the side," McDermott said. "We didn't have the communication we needed right there, and so because of that, he was late onto the field and getting the call in that situation."

The Texans won on the next play – a 59-yard field goal by Ka'imi Fairbairn as time expired.

Bills receivers only caught four of the 18 targets they were given – the worst reception percentage the team has had since 2009 (Week 13) and the worst by any team's wide receivers with a minimum of 15 targets since 2016 (Rams, Week 16).

In total, Allen completed 9 out of 30 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown to Coleman. The Bills were without their top receiver, Khalil Shakir, due to an ankle injury.

Allen had the lowest completion percentage in a game with at least 30 pass attempts in the past 30 seasons. He said he needs to up his game, including with his ball placement, to help the receivers get open. Coleman said it wasn't down to anything the Texans were doing on defence, but was down to a few self-inflicted issues, including communication difficulties, which he put on himself.

"I would never, ever criticize Josh ever," Edwards said. "He is the heartbeat of our offense and our football team. We go as he goes. He is the man. I could easily point to myself on one of those third downs, not being able to pick up one of the stunts. So, this game is not on Josh."