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Little went right for Josh Allen in a tough game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

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

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”