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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

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

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”