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Very little went well for the Bills' quarterback in a tough contest on Thursday evening against the Texans.

And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an late pick in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the Bills’ final possession, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to Josh Palmer, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock picked off Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a chance to come out on top there at the end,” Allen said. “Our team performed a solid job of hanging tough and our defensive unit saved us a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high eight times and hit four other times. The QB passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay last week.

Whenever they hit our QB a dozen times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It’s just not a healthy way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the rest of the season. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

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

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. Too many times, I found myself going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 total yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to top the Houston defense. His second one came when he almost took Allen down near the line of scrimmage, but he wriggled away and the defender rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills played for a second straight game without receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a improved week, but we’re taking it step by step. It wasn’t that it was ignored, but we went with the guys that give us the best chance.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he concluded. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we’ve got to find a way, and we came up short.”