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Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

The quarterback took consecutive sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

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

It was tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Texans. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was previously benched for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed 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 wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”