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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen 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 isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.

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

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

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

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”