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Little clicked for the Bills' quarterback in a frustrating game Thursday night versus the Houston Texans.

Yet he nearly managed to willing the Buffalo Bills to a win before an interception in the final minute sealed their fate in a 23-19 defeat.

Allen took consecutive tackles for loss on the team's last drive, leading to a long fourth down, but Buffalo (7-4) picked up significant yardage on a quick throw from Allen to a receiver, who tossed a lateral to Khalil Shakir.

After a pre-snap infraction led to a fourth down situation for the Bills, a Texans defender intercepted Allen’s pass at the 9-yard line with 24 seconds left.

“We had a chance to win it there at the conclusion,” Allen said. “Our team performed a good job of hanging tough and our defensive unit bailed us out a few instances. We’ve got find a way, and unfortunately we failed.”

It was tough for the signal-caller to establish rhythm on a evening he was brought down a personal-worst eight times and hit four additional instances. Allen threw for 253 passing yards with two interceptions and no touchdowns after accounting for six touchdowns in a win over the Buccaneers the previous week.

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

Allen was slow to rise after a tackle in the opening two quarters. He indicated he was fine and that his shoulder “lost some feeling” after he landed on it awkwardly. He was questioned about being hit so many times during the game.

It's unpleasant,” he said. “I encountered a few myself. I’ve got to be better at disposing of the football. Too many times, I was going backwards.”

Allen lost 70 yards on the eight sacks. Will Anderson Jr. had 2.5 tackles for loss to lead the Texans. Another sack occurred when he nearly sacked the QB near the line of scrimmage, but he escaped and the defender got up and chased him downfield to tackle him for an 18-yard loss to result in a punt early in the third.

The Bills competed for a second consecutive matchup absent wideout Keon Coleman after he was once more a non-participant after he was tardy to a squad gathering before their previous contest. He was previously held out for the opening drive of a defeat to the Patriots in Week 5 after additionally being late for a meeting.

“Nothing new. We’re just approaching it one day at a time,” McDermott noted. “I thought he had a improved week, but we are handling it step by step. It was not that it was ignored, but we opted for the players that give us the best chance.”

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

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

“Ultimately, we must perform, and we failed to do a good job of that tonight,” he said. “Whatever situation and any condition, we need to find a way, and we didn’t.”