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

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an late pick in the last moments sealed their fate in a 23-19 loss.

The quarterback endured back-to-back sacks on the Bills’ last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (with seven wins) gained significant yardage on a quick throw from Josh Allen to a receiver, who flipped a lateral to another teammate.

After a false-start penalty led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender picked off the quarterback's throw at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds remaining.

“We had a opportunity to win it there at the conclusion,” Josh Allen said. “We did a good job of hanging tough and our defense bailed us out a few instances. We must find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was difficult for Allen to get anything going on a night he was sacked a career-high on eight occasions and pressured four additional instances. Allen passed for 253 yards with two interceptions and zero scores after producing six TDs in a victory over Tampa Bay the previous week.

Whenever they pressure our quarterback 12 times, I don’t like that,” Bills coach McDermott said. “I disapprove of that stat at all. It is not a healthy way to compete and it isn't a smart way to keep our quarterback in good shape for the remaining games. We need to improve our performance.”

Josh Allen was sluggish to rise after a sack in the first half. He indicated he was OK and that his left shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it in an awkward manner. He was asked about being hit so many times during the game.

“It’s not fun,” he said. “I ran into a few personally. I need to be more effective at disposing of the football. Too many times, I found myself losing ground.”

The Bills' QB surrendered 70 yards on the eight sacks. Anderson had two and a half sacks to lead the Texans. His second one occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the scrimmage line, but he wriggled away and Anderson rose and pursued him across the field to drop him for an 18-yard loss to force a punt in the third quarter.

Buffalo played for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Coleman after he was again a non-participant after he was late to a team meeting before their previous contest. He was earlier benched for the opening drive of a loss to New England in the fifth week after additionally being delayed for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I felt he had a better week, but we are handling it step by step. It wasn’t that it wasn’t thought about, but we opted for the guys that provide the best chance.”

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

The quarterback was frustrated that the Bills couldn’t make plays in crucial moments.

In the end, we’ve got execute, and we didn’t do a good job of that this evening,” he concluded. “No matter the situation and whatever condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”