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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a tough game on Thursday evening against the Houston Texans.

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

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's final possession, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “Our team performed a solid 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 establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and pressured four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after producing six touchdowns in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they hit our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it’s not a good way to preserve our field general in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so many times on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I ran into a couple myself. I need to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him downfield to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second consecutive matchup without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it day by day,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the Bills couldn’t make plays down the stretch.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we’ve got to discover a solution, and we came up short.”