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Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”