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Very little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but the Bills (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a false-start penalty created 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 win it there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a night he was sacked a personal-worst eight times and pressured four additional instances. The QB passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It is not a healthy way to play and it isn't a good way to preserve our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after also being late for a team session.

No change. We’re just taking it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re handling it one day at a time. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we went with the players that provide the optimal opportunity.”

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

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

In the end, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and any condition, we need to discover a solution, and we came up short.”