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

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four other times. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our QB 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 smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective 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 two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”

Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”