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Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. 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 frequently during the game.

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

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”