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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.

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

The quarterback took consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did 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 tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

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

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”