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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.

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

Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo 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 make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”