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Little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing game Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the last moments sealed their fate in a close loss.

The quarterback took back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the end,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they hit our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Bills coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game without wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the first series of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we opted for the guys that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Khalil Shakir led the Bills with eight catches for 110 receiving yards and James Cook had 116 yards and a touchdown.

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

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”