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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus 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 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup 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 previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

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

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”