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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.

Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I encountered a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the team couldn’t execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”