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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough 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 get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen 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 safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better 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.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”