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Little went right for the Bills' quarterback in a disappointing contest Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a victory before an interception in the final minute ended their hopes in a close loss.

Allen endured back-to-back tackles for loss on the team's last drive, resulting in a fourth-and-27, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up 44 yards on a quick throw from Allen to Josh Palmer, who flipped a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

Following a pre-snap infraction created a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the Houston 9 with under half a minute left.

“We had a opportunity to come out on top there at the conclusion,” Allen stated. “We did a solid job of staying in it and our defense saved us a few instances. We must figure it out, and we didn’t.”

Proved tough for the signal-caller to get anything going on a night he was brought down a personal-worst on eight occasions and hit four other times. The QB threw for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

“When they hit our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Buffalo's head coach Sean McDermott said. “I don’t like that stat at all. It is not a safe way to compete and it’s not a smart way to keep our quarterback healthy for the remaining games. We’ve got to improve our performance.”

Allen was slow to get up after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he fell on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being contacted so frequently on Thursday.

It's unpleasant,” he remarked. “I ran into a few myself. I need to be better at disposing of the football. On multiple occasions, I was going backwards.”

The Bills' QB lost 70 yards on the eight quarterback takedowns. Will Anderson Jr. had two and a half tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and chased him across the field to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo competed for a second straight game without receiver Coleman after he was again a healthy scratch after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the first series of a loss to the Patriots in Week 5 after also being late for a team session.

“Nothing new. We are approaching it day by day,” the coach said. “I thought he had a better week, but we are handling it one day at a time. It was not that it was ignored, but we went with the players that give us the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was disappointed that the team couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

“Ultimately, we’ve got perform, and we didn’t do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever scenario and whatever circumstance, we’ve got to find a way, and we didn’t.”