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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine 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 on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought 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.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”