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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it’s not a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to play better.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.

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

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

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a loss 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,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are 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 Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and Cook had 116 yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”