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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

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

“We had 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 bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”