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Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

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

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

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

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “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 provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”