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Little went well for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

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

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one 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 result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”