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Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up 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 asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

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

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir topped the Bills 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 make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”