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Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

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

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

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

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”