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Little went right for Josh Allen in a frustrating game Thursday night against the Texans.

And still he came close to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the last moments ended their hopes in a close defeat.

The quarterback endured consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who flipped a backward pass to another teammate.

Following a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for Buffalo, Calen Bullock intercepted the quarterback's pass at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of staying in it and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved difficult for Allen to get anything going on a evening he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. The QB threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and zero scores after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they hit our QB a dozen times, that's unacceptable,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott commented. “I disapprove of that statistic at all. It is not a safe way to play and it isn't a good way to keep our quarterback healthy for the rest of the season. We’ve got to play better.”

Allen was sluggish to get up after a sack in the opening two quarters. He said he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Anderson had two and a half sacks to top the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he escaped and the defender rose and chased him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was once more a healthy scratch after he was late to a squad gathering before their last game. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a team session.

No change. We are approaching it day by day,” McDermott said. “I felt he had a better week, but we’re taking it step by step. It was not that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the players that give us the optimal opportunity.”

Shakir topped the Bills with eight receptions for 110 yards and Cook had 116 rushing yards and a touchdown.

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

In the end, we’ve got perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”