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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked 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 TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle 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 on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

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