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Little went well for Josh Allen in a tough game Thursday night against the Texans.

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

Allen took back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

We possessed a chance to win it 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’ve got figure it out, and unfortunately we failed.”

Proved tough for Allen to establish rhythm on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be more effective at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. His second one occurred when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent receiver Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to the Patriots in the fifth week after also being late for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the Bills were unable to execute down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he concluded. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”