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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one came 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 force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering 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 team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”