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Very little clicked for Josh Allen in a frustrating contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our field general healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so frequently during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and pursued him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second straight game absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”

Shakir led the Buffalo with eight receptions for 110 yards and James Cook had 116 rushing yards and a score.

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t execute in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”