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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “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 players that give us the best chance.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”