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Little went right for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed 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.”

It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they hit our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

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

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

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”