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Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a close loss.

Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender 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 competed for a second consecutive matchup without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

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

In the end, we must execute, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”