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Very little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” 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 isn't a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”