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Very little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game on Thursday evening versus the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

Allen endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed 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 under half a minute remaining.

We possessed a chance to win it there at the end,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to compete and it isn't a smart way to preserve our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. 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 disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself going backwards.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

In the end, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever condition, we need to discover a solution, and we didn’t.”