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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 willing the Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”