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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”

Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”