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Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy 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 delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach 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 opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”