Bengals vs. Texans 2016 live scores, highlights, news, and more
Houston can clinch the AFC South crown, but needs some help on Saturday.
Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images
Final score: Texans 12, Bengals 10
Both teams found a little offense after the Texans took a 6-3 lead. Andy Dalton found Brandon LaFell for an 86-yard touchdown, and then on the next drive, Alfred Blue ran in a 24-yard touchdown. The Bengals blocked the extra point, giving Houston a 12-10 lead. Former Texans kicker Randy Bullock had a chance to beat Houston at the end, but he missed the field goal and the Texans clinched the AFC South.
Third quarter: Texans 3, Bengals 3
The Texans added their own field goal midway through the third quarter. Tom Savage has looked better in the second half, and Alfred Blue has rushed for 44 yards in Lamar Miller’s absence. The Bengals haven’t been able to get much going on the ground. Rex Burkhead is currently the leading rusher for Cincinnati with 17 yards on six carries.
Second quarter: Bengals 3, Texans 0
The Bengals sneaked in a field goal as time expired in the first half. Savage is 2 of 7 for just 13 yards.
First quarter: Texans 0, Bengals 0
The Bengals sacked Savage three times. That, plus six punts, was about all that happened.
Highlights
J.J. Watt was PUMPED when Jadeveon Clowney sacked Andy Dalton.
The Bengals blocked an extra point, but then they missed a field goal that would’ve given them a win.
Before the game
Brock Osweiler inked a four-year, $72 million pact with the Houston Texans this past offseason. After 14.5 games as one of the league’s worst starting quarterbacks, he’s been replaced by a guy who, at his current salary, would need to play for more than 114 years to make $72 million.
Tom Savage entered last week’s game against the Jaguars to a thunderous ovation and a 13-0 deficit. He left the game with an important victory and an efficient 260 passing yards, marking his official ascension to the top of Houston’s depth chart. On Saturday we’ll get to see if Savage is the answer to the quarterback problems that have plagued the Texans since their inception, or whether the Osweiler experiment will have to be taken out of stasis.
They’ll face a Bengals team now assured of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2010. Cincinnati has struggled this fall, beating only one team (the Dolphins) currently in possession of a winning record. Forty percent of its victories have come against the Cleveland Browns.
That steep drop-off could have Marvin Lewis’s tenure as the team’s head coach in jeopardy. Lewis has done a solid job with the Bengals during the regular season in recent years, but has zero playoff victories to show for his hard work. With “lost - Wild Card” standing as the franchise’s high-water mark since 1990, Cincinnati could be searching for a new coaching candidate if the team can’t finish strong and ruin some other teams’ final stretches in the process.
The Texans would qualify as a team that can be spoiled. But after the Titans lost earlier in the day, Houston can win the AFC South with a win. If they lose, they’ll face the Titans for the division title in the final week of the season next Sunday.
Houston has suffered its share of losses this fall, but wins over the Lions and Chiefs show just how dangerous this team can be, even without an effective quarterback behind center. If Savage can rise up to a level of competence Osweiler frustratingly fell short of week after week, he could make the Texans something more than “that team people scramble to bet against in the playoffs.”
The next step toward proving his legitimacy comes against a flawed Bengals team at home. Savage won’t have running back Lamar Miller to help him out, though. Miller was ruled out with a ankle injury before the game. Meanwhile, the Bengals will be without A.J. Green again.
Pregame reading
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