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Little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe 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 play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier held out 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 noted. “I thought 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 players that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”