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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“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 defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

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

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”