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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night 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 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

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

It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

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

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased 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 late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”