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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good 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 Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”

Khalil Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.

Allen was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”