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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

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

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

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

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

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred 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 result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”