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Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

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

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout 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 New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”