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

Yet he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions 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 win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

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

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB 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 deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

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

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”