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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I need to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to make plays down the stretch.

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