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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up 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 in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.

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