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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest 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 23-19 loss.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds 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 couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

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

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”