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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

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

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense 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 brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson 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 competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide 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 team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”