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Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “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 healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”