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Little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 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 field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

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

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “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 went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”