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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field 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 absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”