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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

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

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”