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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

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

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender 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 absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”