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Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. 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 fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

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

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

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

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

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

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”