The Bengals’ undefeated season came to an end Monday night at Paul Brown Stadium on fourth-and-six when Texans safety Quintin Demps forced wide receiver A.J. Green to fumble the ball at the Houston 22 with 40 seconds left for a stunning 10-6 loss that featured no Cincinnati touchdowns by the NFL’s No. 3 scoring team.
Green had the first down, but as it happened all night, the Bengals just couldn’t convert. Quarterback Andy Dalton had a 61 passer rating on a night he completed just 22 of 38 passes for 197 yards as the Bengals could scrounge only a season-low 256 yards, the same amount their defense stuffed on Houston.
After Texans defensive lineman J.J. Watt rung up his first regular-season sack against the Bengals, they were staring at a third-and-18 from their own 11 with 3:06 left in the game and had converted just three of their 12 previous third downs. But Dalton found wide receiver A.J. Green over the middle for a 26-yard gain and running back Giovani Bernard scooted for a 15-yard catch to put the ball at the Texans 48 at the two-minute warning.
Some bad déjà vu entered into this 8-0 season in the form of Texans backup quarterback T.J. Yates. Yates had been unemployed until a few weeks ago when Ryan Mallett’s alarm clock went on the fritz.
It will be recalled when Yates made his first NFL start as a rookie in 2011 at PBS, he led the Texans to a 20-19 victory on a six-yard touchdown pass with two seconds left.
With Texans starting quarterback Brian Hoyer out with a concussion late in the third quarter, Yates came into throw his first passes of the season and two went for third-down conversions and another went for a wondrous one-handed 22-yard touchdown catch by wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins to give the Texans a 10-6 lead with 14:20 left in the game.
Cornerback Adam Jones had good position on Hopkins, but he leaped over Jones and one-handed for the first TD Jones has given up this season. It was Yates’ first touchdown pass since that 2011 season and the Texans’ win over the Bengals in the Wild Card game.
When Yates converted the two third downs _ a third-and-eight and third-and-13 to tight end Ryan Griffin _ the Bengals brought the blitz a little too late and on one of them, linebacker Vincent Rey, was called for a late hit on Yates.
The Bengals offense, paralyzed by its inability to loosen up the sagging Houston defense with a running game, had no answers as the game lurched into the fourth quarter. Heading into the fourth quarter, Dalton had targeted Green just three times and not since the middle of the first quarter. And tight end Tyler Eifert had just two balls thrown his way as the Texans posted their safeties high and cornerbacks off the line.
And when Dalton finally did get Eifert open on one third down with 12 minutes left in the game, Dalton missed him badly in the middle of the field when Eifert peeled off his route. Eifert also had three drops.
The Texans’ NFL-leading third-down defense showed up as advertised as the Bengals whiffed on their first four third downs of the second half as the league’s fourth-best third down offense finished 4-for-14 on conversions.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online Sports
