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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”