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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 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 down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. 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 Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”