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

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.

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

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. 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 got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”