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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good 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 Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He said 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 many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued 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 Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”