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Little clicked for Josh Allen in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

Yet he came close to driving the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a short pass from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's pass at the 9-yard line with under half a minute left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” 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.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was asked about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

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

The Bills' QB lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. His second one came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

The Bills played for a second straight game absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was tardy to a team meeting before their last game. He was earlier held out for the opening drive of a defeat to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are taking it day by day,” the coach noted. “I thought he had a better week, but we’re handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the team were unable to execute in crucial moments.

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