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

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

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

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 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’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions 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 must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”