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Very little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night versus the 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 took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”