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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.

And still he came close to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute ended their hopes in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for Allen to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to top the Houston defense. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”