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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock 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. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, 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 James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

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

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”