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Very little went well for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had 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 couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

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

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

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

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”