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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

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

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB lost 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 the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a team session.

No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”