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

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

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

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

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

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”