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

And still he nearly managed to driving the Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback took back-to-back tackles for loss on the Bills’ last drive, resulting in a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) gained 44 yards on a short pass from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a backward pass to Khalil Shakir.

Following a false-start penalty led to a fourth-and-6 for the Bills, Calen Bullock intercepted Allen’s throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

We possessed a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a couple of times. 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 career-high eight times and pressured four other times. Allen passed for 253 yards with a pair of picks and no touchdowns after accounting for six TDs in a victory over the Buccaneers the previous week.

“When they pressure our quarterback 12 times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to play and it’s not a good way to keep our field general healthy for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He said he was fine and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it in an awkward manner. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I encountered a couple personally. I’ve got to be better at throwing the ball away. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

Allen surrendered 70 total yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack came when he nearly took Allen down near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and the defender got up and pursued him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard deficit to result in a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without wideout Keon Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their last game. He was previously held out for the first series of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being late for a team session.

No change. We are taking it day by day,” 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 was ignored, but we opted for the players that provide the best chance.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we must execute, and we didn’t succeed of that this evening,” he said. “No matter the scenario and any circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”