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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 last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

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

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “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 guys that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”