A win on Monday night would be huge for the Houston Texans' chances of winning the mediocre AFC South. Unfortunately for them, that would require beating the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium.
‘Monday Night Football’ 2015 live stream: How to watch Texans vs. Bengals online
The Texans need a major upset to stay in the race for the AFC South.
At the moment, FiveThirtyEight gives the Texans a 20 percent chance of overcoming the Indianapolis Colts for the division title and a 24 percent overall chance of making the postseason -- they aren't likely to grab a wild card spot. Those odds, though, are built around a very probable loss in Cincinnati, and would increase drastically with a victory.
To do that, though, the Texans are going to have to suddenly find some offensive production. They rank 29th in rushing yards per game and 20th in points per game, and offensive coordinator George Godsey has run out of things to try. Brian Hoyer has been an improvement over Ryan Mallet at QB, but Arian Foster struggled before his season-ending Achilles tear and Alfred Blue and Chris Polk have both been ineffective.
The Bengals are actually quite poor defending the run, allowing a league-worst 4.9 yards per carry, but they’ve usually had teams too far behind to take advantage of it. They are quite good against the pass, allowing 10 touchdowns while picking off eight passes and adding 23 sacks, but the Texans might have a shot if they can move the ball on the ground and if the defense can keep them in the game.
That, of course, means stopping Andy Dalton. The 28-year-old is having a spectacular season, completing 67.4 percent of his passes despite throwing the ball downfield enough to average 12.8 yards per catch. He has four quality downfield targets, led by A.J. Green and Tyler Eifert, while running backs Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard are averaging a combined 106.9 yards per game.
That’s asking a lot of a decent Texans defense, especially one that has trouble with the run.
How to watch
When: 8:30 p.m. ET
Where: Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, Ohio
Network: ESPN
Announcers: Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden, Lisa Salters
Online: Watch ESPN
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