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

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

Allen took back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute remaining.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high eight times and hit four other times. Allen passed for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they pressure our QB 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat 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’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being hit so many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being delayed for a meeting.

No change. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we are taking it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

Allen was disappointed that the Bills were unable to make plays down the stretch.

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to succeed of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”