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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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 down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”