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Little clicked for Josh Allen in a tough contest Thursday night versus the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

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

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to get anything going on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after producing six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

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

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver 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 opening drive of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was frustrated that the team couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the scenario and whatever circumstance, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”