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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

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

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched 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 taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”