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

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

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

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

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

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”