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

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.

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

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”