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

And still he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a close defeat.

Allen endured consecutive sacks on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but the Bills (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a couple of times. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple myself. I’ve got to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Houston defense. Another sack came when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any circumstance, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”