The Bengals entered week 10 on a 4 game winning streak, looking to keep the ball rolling against the Houston Texans. With a week 11 Thursday night matchup against the Ravens on the horizon, this was one that they had to be careful not to overlook. Afterall, every game is important with the playoff race being so tight, and the Texans have been on fire as of late.
It was a promising start for the Bengals, in a game where they were missing Tee Higgins on offence. The opening drive featured a heavy dose of Tanner Hudson, with the TE making 5 catches on the drive, including a 4th down conversion. Later on, facing 3rd & 7 on the Houston 32, Burrow took a shot, and found Trenton Irwin down the sideline for a TD, giving the Bengals an early 7-0 lead.
After both teams exchanged punts, the Texans went on a long drive, with a coupe of chunk pickups along the way. Eventually ending up at the Bengals 9 yard line, they decided to keep the offence out there on 4th & 1. On 4th down, CJ Stroud fumbled the snap, and DJ Reader was quick to recover. The bend-don’t-break defence that we have seen often this year was at it again.
Unfortunately, the Bengals could not take advantage of the turnover, and the Texans were soon driving again. But this time, they made sure to finish the drive off. Two chunk pickups by Tank Dell helped get them down the field, as did a facemask penalty on Pratt. From 6 yards out, Stroud found Dell for the TD, tying the game at 7.
A couple of drives later, the Bengals defence forced another turnover. This one was a strip sack by Logan Wilson, recovered by Pratt. But again, the offence could not do anything with it. Instead, the Texans got the ball back and kicked a field goal before the half. They went into it with a 10-7 lead.
Houston opened the 2nd half with another field goal, and were then driving again after the Bengals punted on their opening drive of the half. In fact, they only needed two plays to find the endzone. One was a pass interference call on DJ Turner, the other an 11 yard run by Singletary. The Texans now led 20-7.
Down 20-7, the Bengals offence finally began to show signs of life. Burrow ran it for a 17 yard gain on the drive’s first play, and found Boyd for 14 a play later. The chunk yardage continued, with Mixon running for 15, and Boyd making another catch, this time for 10 yards. However, on 3rd & 5, Burrow was sacked, and the Bengals were forced to settle for a field goal, making the score 20-10 for the Texans.
After forcing a punt, the Bengals sent the offence back out, looking to string together back to back scores, and further cut into the lead. Well, they wasted no time doing so. On just the third play of the drive, Burrow rolled out to his left and, on the run, found Chase deep for a 64 yard TD. It was now a 3 point game. 20-17 Texans.
Almost as fast as the Bengals were able to trim it down to a one score game, the Texans restored their two score lead. The Bengals defence was sliced through like butter, with pickups of 34, 17, 11 yards respectively, propelling the Texans down the field. In the end, it was Stroud running it in from 8 yards out to give the Texans a 27-17 lead.
After the Bengals had two straight long drives end with a bad Joe Burrow interception, hope of pulling off the comeback was starting to fade. But Cam Taylor-Britt came up with a timely interception, returning the ball 30 yards to the Texans 4 yardline. Joe Mixon punched it in from the 1 a couple of plays later, making the score 27-24.
The defence forced a crucial 3 and out, giving the ball back to the offence, down 3 with plenty of time left. On the opening play of the drive, Burrow found Tyler Boyd deep. His catch and run totaled 64 yards and brought the Bengals down to the Houston 7. However, a sack on 1st down and a 1 yard gain on 2nd left the Bengals faced with 3rd & goal from the 13. Despite the challenging circumstance, a nice play was drawn up, and Burrow found Tyler Boyd open up the seam in the endzone. BUT… he dropped it. It was a backbreaker for the Bengals, who were forced to take the field goal and tie the game at 27.
With over a minute and half to go, the Texans went to work, looking to win the game. The leaks on defence continued for the Bengals, as they allowed a 25 yard pass to Schultz, and a 22 yarder to Brown, who was able to break the tackle attempts by Germaine Pratt and Nick Scott, and bring the ball to the Cincinnati 20. Practice squad call up Matt Ammendola was filling in at kicker for the injured Ka’imi Fairbairn for the Texans. His 38 yard attempt was good, and it sailed through the uprights as time expired, sealing the win for Houston.
It was a tough one to swallow for the Bengals, who drop to 5-4. Especially after the Ravens lost, and the Bengals could have been just a half game off of the division lead. But on the flip side, the Ravens loss means that the division is still air tight. And speaking of the Ravens, the Bengals will be in Baltimore on Thursday night to take them on in what borderlines on a must win game.
Modified Homescreen Image Via: Michael Li (CC)