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Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach 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 quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and whatever condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”