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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close loss.

Allen took consecutive sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (7-4) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a pre-snap infraction created a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

“We had a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening 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 TDs in a win over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being contacted so frequently during the game.

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

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

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

Shakir topped the Buffalo with eight catches for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a score.

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

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”