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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen stated. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Josh Allen was slow 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 awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen 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 almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and Anderson got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”