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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm 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 a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

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

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

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

Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”