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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”