|
Bengals season comes to end
bengals.com
HOUSTON — While the Texans used their big-play people to blast open
Saturday’s AFC Wild Card game, the Bengals couldn’t scrape much out of
their own offensive weapons as their improbable season slipped away in
the din of Reliant Stadium as Houston rolled to a 31-10 win.
For the second time in six days, the Bengals offered little resistance
in the running game. Texans running back Arian Foster and his offensive
line took over the game in the fourth quarter and he topped it off with
a 42-yard touchdown run with 5:15 left when he rolled around the right
edge virtually untouched. Safety Chris Crocker had a shot at Foster at
about the 20, but Foster stiffarmed him and tightroped down the
sideline to finish it.
That gave Foster 153 yards on 24 carries, marking the seventh time in
the last nine games the Berngals have allowed a team 100 yards rushing
after giving up only one in the first eight games.
It was set up by rookie quarterback Andy Dalton’s third interception of
the game when he overthrew rookie wide receiver A.J. Green on a bomb
down the sideline and safety Danieal Manning came over from the middle.
After the Texans took a 24-10 lead late in the third quarter, they
poured the pass rush on Dalton, sacking him for a nine-yard loss when
tackle Antonio Smith came up the middle between center Kyle Cook and
left guard Nate Livings. It was the most Dalton had been sacked this
season.
But the Texans also came up with a coverage pick when on fourth-and-3
Dalton backpedaled and threw one up for grabs and former Bengals
cornerback Johnathan Joseph did the grabbing.
Green had four catches in the first half, but only one in the second
half and Joseph punctuated it as he knocked down Cincinnati’s last pass
of the season in the end zone on a fourth-and-five play with 2:32 left
in the game.
Houston took that 24-10 lead into the fourth quarter when rookie
quarterback T.J. Yates found five-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Andre
Johnson running past cornerback Adam Jones after he buckled him to his
knees with a double move. A few plays before, Jones limped off the
field with a foot problem and when he came back, the Texans went right
after him.
Johnson was wide open for a killing 40-yard touchdown catch that gave
the Texans a huge 14-point margin with 1:08 left in the third quarter.
A few snaps earlier, with 2:32 left in the third, Crocker looked like
he was going to change the game when Yates threw a ball at him that was
intended for tight end Owen Daniels over the middle. With Crocker
flying up the field for what looked like could have been a pick-six to
tie it at 17, he dropped it.
The karma said the next play would happen. Facing third-and-six from
his 49, Yates hit Johnson over the middle, but he bobbled and juggled
the ball. Yet he recovered in time to barely get the first down.
The turnover that Dalton has meticulously avoided the past six weeks
came out of nowhere in the final minute of the first half when Texans
rookie defensive tackle J.J. Watt spiced this rookie show with a
shocking 29-yard interception return for a touchdown that gave Houston
a 17-10 lead at halftime.
And it was more of an unbelievable play by Watt instead of a poor one
by Dalton. On first down from his own 34, Dalton dropped back, had
time, and whipped a ball to the right side for Green. But after right
guard Mike McGlynn blocked Watt, Watt leaped straight in the air,
caught the ball one-handed instead of batting it down, and rolled
untouched past the disbelieving Bengals with 52 seconds left in the
half.
It was just Dalton’s second interception since he had three Nov. 20 in
Baltimore, his first since the Dec. 18 win in St. Louis, and spoiled a
good effort by the Bengals in controlling the clock. The Texans came in
leading the NFL in average time of possession with more than 32
minutes, but they had it just 12:45 in a first half the Bengals had it
17:15 and took leads of 7-0 and 10-7.
With 1:48 left in the half, the Bengals forced a field goal when
cornerback Kelly Jennings got his head around just in time to defend
Yates’ throw into the end zone on third-and-nine. Former Bengal Neil
Rackers snuck in a 39-yard field goal inches inside the left upright to
tie the game at 10 to set up Watt’s heroics.
Dalton returned home to Houston and was doing OK until that. In this
first playoff game between two rookie quarterbacks, Dalton was more
productive than Yates in the first half. He was 13-of-18 for 120 yards
while Yates went 6-of-13 for 79 yards. But the pick killed him and
Yates went on to a careful 11 of 21 for 159 yards that gave him a 97.7
rating compared to Dalton’s 51.4, his second worst of the season. The
difference were the pick and the touchdown.
To make matters worse, the Bengals ran out of challenges for the game
with 4:33 left in the first half when they failed to overturn their
second of the day, which came on a third-and-four conversion pass the
Bengals thought was juggled.
The Bengals had trouble running the ball in the first half with the
longest runs by running backs Cedric Benson and Bernard Scott three
yards each and they finished with just 76 yards on 19 runs.
Meanwhile, Dalton took seven shots at Green in the first half and got
him four times for 42 yards, as well as a ball that drew a 52-yard pass
interference penalty and set up the lone Bengals touchdown.
But tight end Jermaine Gresham had no catches and had one ball thrown
to him in the first half and the only non-Green receiver with a
double-digit catch was backup tight end Donald Lee on a 36-yarder down
the seam.
The defense, solid on third down in the half on a 2-for-6 effort,
rescued the Bengals from Mike Nugent’s 50-yard field goal miss without
sacrificing field position and Dalton’s 36-yard pass to Lee got Nugent
back on the field so he could hit a 37-yarder with 7:09 left in the
first half that gave the Bengals a 10-7 lead.
On the snap after the 50-yard miss, defensive tackle Geno Atkins came
up with a sack that led to a big three-and-out.
The Bengals lost their first timeout when they couldn’t overturn a
challenge on the spot when Benson was called inches shy on second down,
but Dalton got it on a sneak before he hit the wide open Lee down the
middle. Lee, a nine-year veteran who had 11 catches this season after
coming over from the Super Bowl champion Packers, was wide open down
the middle and hurdled a defender before Texans defensive tackle
Antonio Smith was called for unnecessary roughness to put the ball on
the Texans 20.
From there, the Bengals spread out the Texans on three straight passes
(the last a shovel pass) but could only get a yard. Dalton tried to get
it inside to Green, but cornerback Brice McCain knocked the ball away.
Nugent, who hadn’t tried a 50-yarder all year until that miss, got it
back by hitting the 37-yarder.
The Bengals jumped on top 7-0 when Green drew a 52-yard pass
interference call on strong safety Glover Quin that put the ball on the
Texans 20. With offensive coordinator Jay Gruden making sure the
Bengals weren’t going to leave Texas without feeding their Pro Bowl
wide receiver, Dalton rolled out on a play-action fake and went deep to
draw the penalty.
Gruden then made a great call third-and-seven and running back Brian
Leonard caught a screen wide open against the blitz and lugged it 16
yards to the 1. From there Benson walked in over left guard for the
touchdown with 7:34 left in the first quarter.
But the Texans responded in less than three minutes to tie it. Foster,
racking up 47 yards on his first four carries, got stuffed going right
but he cut it back left and there was nobody on the back side for a
15-yard gain. He had just 41 yards on 15 carries back in Cincinnati
last month.
Yates then hit Daniels over the middle and for the second week in a row
safety Reggie Nelson was called for hitting a receiver high. A 15-yard
penalty got tacked on to put the ball on the Bengals 20. Foster did the
rest on three carries, the last eight yards for a wide-open touchdown
run on a play that Foster widened as he got to the pylon. That tied it
at seven with 4:57 left in the first quarter.
Foster ended the half with 70 yards on 5.8 per his 12 carries.
|
|
|
|
