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

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

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