Texans vs. Bengals: Highlights, game tracker and more

The Houston Texans faced the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday, Sept. 14 in NFL Week 2 on Thursday Night Football. Here are the highlights from the game.

No one was too shocked when Houston Texans head coach Bill O’Brien yanked starting quarterback Tom Savage at halftime in their Week 1 loss. As a result, they brought Deshaun Watson in, though the results were still ugly for the Texans. For as bad as Houston was, though, the Cincinnati Bengals were even worse in their season-opener, getting blanked by the Baltimore Ravens.

Considering what these two teams looked like this past weekend, how this game started was far from a surprise. It was a punting spectacular for most of the first quarter with only a Texans field goal putting points on the board. The Bengals put up two field goals in the second quarter, but it was the rookie Watson that really came through in the second 15-minute period.

Trying to drive his team down the field, Watson had the offense at midfield. He dropped back to pass, but the defense ate up his O-line and the pocket started to collapse. With solid coverage down the field, the Clemson product had only one option: Take off. And take off Watson did, as the quarterback showed his athleticism and savvy as he weaved through the Bengals defense for a 49-yard touchdown run — a nice present for the birthday boy.

Unfortunately for fans, that was where most of the excitement ended. Each team kicked another field goal in the second half, including the Texans drilling one late in the fourth quarter to go up 13-9. Cincy had one chance to drive, but had nothing going for them as their offense continued to look almost completely inept.

They then got the ball on their own 20-yard line with two seconds left for one more desperation play, but it was all for naught as the laterals were put to rest by a huge hit from J.J. Watt to end the play.

Highlights

Next: NFL 2017: Picks against the spread for Week 2

It wasn’t pretty for either of these two teams, but it was the Texans that got the job done. Now everyone will start to speculate as to what this means for the future of Marvin Lewis in Cincinnati, and also if Houston can build off of the win moving forward.