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

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

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England 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 are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”