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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

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

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, 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.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”