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Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling 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 best chance.”

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

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

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