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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”