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Very little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

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

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen 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 play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell 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’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”