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Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

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

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”