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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow 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 awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”