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Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. 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 hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again 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 the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team 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 any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”