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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night against the Houston Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win 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 final possession, leading to a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to another teammate.

Following a false-start penalty created a fourth down situation for Buffalo, a Texans defender picked off Allen’s throw at the Houston 9 with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a couple of times. We must find a way, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for Allen to get anything going on a night he was brought down a career-high on eight occasions and hit four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 yards with a pair of picks and zero scores after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers last week.

“When they pressure our QB 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that statistic at all. It’s just not a safe way to play and it isn't a smart way to preserve our field general healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to rise after a sack in the first half. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “went a little numb” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 sacks to lead the Houston defense. Another sack occurred when he almost sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game absent receiver Keon Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was previously benched for the first series of a loss to New England in Week 5 after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” the coach said. “I felt 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.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the team were unable to execute down the stretch.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “No matter the situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we came up short.”