The Cincinnati Bengals are 2-0.
And perhaps more importantly, they just showed they can win a football game without needing Joe Burrow to throw for 300-plus yards or the offense to put up 30 points.
The Bengals traveled to Houston on Sunday and walked out with a convincing 20-6 victory over the Texans. Cincinnati never trailed, scored in three of the game’s four quarters, and held Houston out of the end zone all afternoon.
It wasn’t a perfect performance.
In fact, Houston outgained Cincinnati 374-267
and ran 78 offensive plays to the Bengals’ 59. But when the Bengals needed to make plays, they did.
Here’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from Cincinnati’s Week 2 win.
The Good
Ja’Marr Chase is still Ja’Marr Chase
After being held to just two receptions in Week 1, Chase wasted little time reminding everyone why he’s one of the most dangerous players in football.
He finished with seven receptions for 75 yards and two touchdowns on nine targets. And both touchdowns were spectacular.
The first was a 32-yard touchdown in the second quarter that required Chase to make an incredible sideline grab. The second came on an 18-yard connection with Burrow in the third quarter.
Those two plays accounted for all of Cincinnati’s touchdowns.
More importantly, Chase was involved from the beginning. After a quiet opening week, getting the ball to No. 1 early and often was clearly a priority.
The Bengals are at their most dangerous when Burrow can lean on Chase. Houston got a reminder of that Sunday.
Tee Higgins quietly had a huge game
Chase got the touchdowns, but Higgins actually led the Bengals in receiving yards.
He caught five passes for 95 yards, averaging an impressive 19 yards per reception. His longest reception went for 23 yards.
That’s an important development.
Defenses simply can’t dedicate all of their attention to Chase when Higgins is capable of producing like this on the other side.
Higgins also came up with one of the game’s prettier receptions, hauling in a 23-yard sideline catch.
Burrow doesn’t need to force the ball to Chase on every important down.
Having Higgins available as a legitimate second option makes this passing game much harder to defend.
The defense looked completely different
This was the biggest positive of the afternoon. Houston scored 31 points against Buffalo in Week 1. Against Cincinnati, the Texans scored six. That’s not a typo.
C.J. Stroud threw for 353 yards, so this wasn’t some dominant statistical shutdown. Houston moved the football. The Texans finished with 22 first downs and 374 total yards.
But Cincinnati consistently prevented Houston from finishing drives.
The Texans went 5-for-17 on third down and 0-for-4 on fourth down. They never reached the end zone. That’s winning defense.
Dexter Lawrence is already making an impact
The biggest addition to Cincinnati’s defensive front made one of the biggest plays of the game. In the second quarter, Houston faced fourth-and-inches from the Bengals’ 18-yard line.
Dexter Lawrence exploded through the line and tackled David Montgomery for a one-yard loss.
Turnover on downs.
Instead of Houston potentially taking the game’s first lead, Cincinnati got the football back. Lawrence finished with three tackles, a tackle for loss and a quarterback hit, but his impact went beyond the box score. The Bengals’ defensive front consistently made life difficult for Houston’s offense.
That’s exactly what Cincinnati envisioned when it acquired Lawrence.
The run defense was excellent
The Bengals’ run defense was a major question entering this season. It didn’t look like one Sunday.
Houston finished with just 60 rushing yards on 18 attempts, good for 3.3 yards per carry. Montgomery and the Texans’ rushing attack simply couldn’t establish much of anything.
Considering how important it was for Cincinnati to improve in this area, this was one of the most encouraging parts of the victory.
Evan McPherson was automatic from distance
McPherson didn’t get many opportunities, but he made both of them count. He connected on field goals of 51 and 57 yards.
That’s 108 yards of field-goal distance on two attempts. When an offense struggles to finish drives, having a kicker who can turn possessions into points from deep is extremely valuable.
McPherson did exactly that.
The Bad
The Bengals’ offense wasn’t exactly humming
Twenty points is enough when your defense holds the opponent to six. But Cincinnati’s offense wasn’t particularly efficient.
The Bengals managed just 267 total yards and 12 first downs. They averaged 4.5 yards per play and converted only five of 15 third-down attempts.
Those numbers aren’t going to scare many defenses.
Burrow completed 20/31 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception. That’s a solid stat line, especially considering the pressure he faced. But the offense still had too many possessions that went nowhere.
The Bengals don’t need to score 30 every week. They do need to be capable of doing it when their defense inevitably has an off day.
Houston controlled the yardage battle
This is the strangest part of the game. The Bengals won 20-6, yet Houston gained 107 more yards. The Texans ran 78 plays compared with Cincinnati’s 59. Houston also had 22 first downs to Cincinnati’s 12.
So how did the Bengals win by 14?
They finished drives better, protected the football, and repeatedly stopped Houston when the Texans needed to convert. It’s a good reminder that yardage totals don’t always tell the story of a game.
But Cincinnati can’t make a habit of giving opponents that kind of offensive volume. Eventually, one of those teams is going to finish those drives.
Burrow took too much punishment
This is the biggest offensive concern coming out of Houston. Burrow was sacked five times for 25 yards.
He also spent a good portion of the afternoon dealing with pressure. The Bengals’ quarterback has proven over and over that he’s capable of creating plays when things break down. That doesn’t mean Cincinnati should make broken plays part of the offensive game plan.
Keeping Burrow upright has to be priority No. 1.
The Ugly
Five sacks allowed
There’s really no way around it. Five sacks is ugly. Burrow threw only 31 passes, and Houston managed to bring him down five times.
That’s a sack on roughly 16% of his dropbacks. Against a better offense, the Bengals might not get away with absorbing that kind of punishment.
The offensive line deserves credit for some good moments, but protection needs to improve. Burrow is too important to this team to consistently take this kind of beating.
The Bengals couldn’t get Chase Brown going through the air
Brown was effective on the ground, rushing for 80 yards on 20 carries, an average of 4.0 yards per attempt.
But his receiving production was essentially nonexistent.
He caught three passes for just two yards.
That’s not necessarily a problem by itself, but Cincinnati’s offense needs to find ways to get its running backs involved in space.
The Bengals finished with only 85 rushing yards as a team, so there wasn’t much offensive explosion on the ground.
Again, the defense made that irrelevant Sunday.
It won’t always be irrelevant.
The offense needs to turn more yards into points
This might be the most important lesson from the game.
Cincinnati scored 20 points despite gaining only 267 yards.
That’s a credit to the defense and special teams, but it also means there is plenty of room for improvement.
The Bengals had eight punts. Eight.
They also had three possessions that ended in three-and-outs. That’s a lot of wasted opportunities for an offense with Burrow, Chase, and Higgins.
The good news? The Bengals still won by two touchdowns.
If this offense gets rolling while the defense continues playing at this level, Cincinnati becomes a much more difficult team to deal with.
The Bottom Line
This wasn’t a pretty offensive performance. It didn’t need to be.
The Bengals went on the road, held a talented Texans offense to six points, stopped Houston on all four of its fourth-down attempts, and made the plays that mattered.
The final statistics actually make the victory more interesting.
Houston had:
- 374 total yards
- 22 first downs
- 78 offensive plays
- 353 passing yards
And scored six points.
Cincinnati had:
- 267 total yards
- 12 first downs
- 59 offensive plays
- 207 passing yards
And scored 20 points.
That’s football. The Bengals were better when it mattered most.
The defense created stops. Chase created touchdowns. Higgins moved the chains. McPherson hit from long range. And Cincinnati didn’t turn the football over.
There is plenty to clean up, particularly with the offensive line and the overall efficiency of the offense. But after two weeks, the Bengals are 2-0.
And perhaps the most encouraging part is that they haven’t needed to play a perfect game to get there.
Next up: Pittsburgh. Now we’ll find out what this new-look Bengals defense looks like in an AFC North fight.
