Can last year tell us anything about this year? In this series, we’ll look at the Bengals schedule game by game, analyzing the good and bad from each week.
The Texans have been the Bengals’ Achilles heel in recent years. Houston eliminated the Bengals from the playoffs in 2011 and 2012, and then ended the Bengals’ undefeated start in 2015. Last season, Houston did nothing to change that reputation. Coming into Week 2 off an embarrassing thrashing at the hands of Baltimore, the Bengals needed a win badly. At home on a Thursday night, they had plenty of opportunities, but fell short 13-9. That loss dropped the team to 0-2 on the season.
To start the game, the Bengals displayed the same offensive woes that plagued them in Week 1. They traded punts with the Texans until John Ross fumbled a jet sweep around midfield. Houston capitalized and kicked a field goal, although the Bengals responded with a field goal of their own. However, Deshaun Watson broke the game wide open with an insane 50 yard scramble for a touchdown, putting Houston ahead 10-6 at halftime. The Bengals pieced together a great drive to start the third quarter to get the score to 10-9. However, the offense ground to halt after that, not advancing past midfield for the rest of the game. Houston kicked a late field goal to ice their victory, as well.
The biggest storyline coming out of this game was the brutality of the offense as a whole again. For the second straight game, the Bengals could not move the ball effectively at all. Not only was the unit sluggish, though, but they were also boring and predictable. The team only averaged 4.3 yards per play and converted a dismal 26% of third downs. While the players were not executing well, the majority of the blame fell on coordinator Ken Zampese. The Bengals fired him the day after this game, deciding a mid-season change in coordinator was better than continuing their vanilla offensive scheme.
Getting rid of Zampese was a quick cure for the Bengals’ offensive deficiencies, but the team needed to get sharper after this game, too. For the second straight game, Andy Dalton looked visibly off. His stat line was much improved – 20/35 for 224 yards with no touchdowns or turnovers – but he was still missing easy passes and airmailing deep routes. As for the running game, the committee approach did not work again. Joe Mixon had an okay game, rushing 9 times for 36 yards, but Jeremy Hill and Giovani Bernard were much worse, averaging under 3 yards a carry.
Not everyone played poorly against Houston, though. Again, AJ Green was the lone bright spot on the offense. He led the Bengals in catches (5) and yards (67), doing his best to save the offense. The defense had a very good game as well – they allowed only 13 points to a Deshaun Watson-led offense. Although the Bengals forced no turnovers, they did contain the dynamic dual-threat ability of Watson (save for the one scramble). Vincent Rey, still filling in for Burfict, again led the team in tackles. Also, Geno Atkins continued his hot start, racking up two more snacks.
The last notable storyline from the Houston game was the usage of first round pick John Ross. Ross had played very little leading up to the season because of a nagging shoulder injury, but saw field time against Houston. He got a jet sweep run in the first quarter and took it for 12 yards, but fumbled the ball away. That killed the Bengals’ offensive momentum and led to the first Texans field goal.
Not only did Ross not see the field again for the rest of the game, but he also didn’t play again the rest of the year. While he did reinsure himself, Ross also put himself in the doghouse. The coaching staff and fans alike excepted a lot more from Ross in his rookie year, and his fumble against Houston left a terrible taste in everyone’s mouth.
The close loss to the Texans put the Bengals in a really tough situation. Starting 0-1 is alright, but 0-2 is a difficult hole to come out of. Dropping the first two games of the season, especially in such frustrating fashion, cemented the notion in many people’s minds that once again, the Bengals would miss the playoffs.