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Very little went well for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, 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 the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

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

Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”