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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”