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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed 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.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”