Wild-card playoff: Houston 31, Cincinnati 10

FIRST QUARTER
Man, I knew I should have picked against the Texans here. T.J. Yates misses a wide-open Andre Johnson by half-a-mile on a crossing pattern to end a 3-and-out, then the idiot Houston fans - they've kept the Reliant Stadium dome shut to hold in the noise - give Andy Dalton a huge ovation. Who do you people want to win? Dalton then outdoes Yates by missing a screen pass as badly as Yates blew the middle pass earlier. I'm guessing this game is not going to rival the Lions-Saints game tonight for offensive explosiveness.

Bengals d-line takes over the line of scrimmage, with Geno Atkins turning the center into a blocking sled to blow up an Arian Foster run, and Jonathan Fanene blocking a 3rd-down pass. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of ex-Ram punter Matt Turk today then.

Good call by Jay Gruden, and good call by the back judge, on the bomb to A.J. Green that drew a 52-yard DPI penalty and put the Bengals in the red zone. I can't believe Clete Blakeman got drawn for a playoff game, btw. His is the crew that spotted the ball so poorly two weeks ago I thought they were dyslexic.

BRIAN LEONARD nearly scores a TD on a screen pass before Cedric Benson plows through easily from the 2 to put the Bengals ahead. My postseason picks are wrong already!

7-0 Cincinnati.

And momentum swings right back. Foster sparks Houston with a big cutback run that appeared to be stuffed for a loss. Yates, who may finally have settled down, hits Owen Daniels for 21, and Reggie Nelson adds 15 by hitting him high. You're supposed to see what you hit, right? Nelson didn't, and earned the foul. Foster sweeps in from 8 yards out, behind nice blocks by the LT and the TE, to tie the game. Gee, I wish the Rams had a tight end who could block.

7-7.

Bengals benefit from the first questionable spot of the day on a 2nd-and-1 Bernard Scott run. Demeco Ryans stopped him well short but Cincinnati was given the first down. The stoked Houston crowd draws a false start, but Green overcomes it with a third-down conversion across midfield as the 1st quarter ends.

7-7 after one.

SECOND QUARTER
Someone either butterfly that screaming Geico piglet open and barbecue it, or do the same thing to the moron at the advertising firm responsible for getting it on TV. Thanks. I'll take a rib.

Dalton-to-Green strikes again to get Cincinnati into FG position, but Mike Nugent fades a 50-yarder wide right. Brooks Reed's sack of Dalton the play before saved the Texans 3 points.

Houston doesn't do much to capitalize - they empty the backfield on 3rd-and-6 and basically invite the Bengal blitz that forces a poor pass from Yates. Sploosh goes Turk's punt in the end zone.

Hey, there's Andrew Hawkins for Cincinnati. About this time five months ago, he was getting cut by the Rams after the first day of training camp. Now he's playing in a playoff game. Who won that exchange?

Something interesting, yet not too surprising: the Blakeman crew is having one of its spots challenged. Wow, they actually got one right. Dalton sneaks across on 3rd-and-a-foot to make it moot. That's actually a puzzling challenge by Marvin Lewis.

Dalton pump-fakes the crap out of the Texans, sprints out of the pocket and hits Donald Lee over the middle for a 36-yard gain. Antonio Smith stupidly adds on a late hit to put the Bengals in the red zone. No movement from the 20 for Cincinnati, though. A.J. Green gets away with OPI to save Dalton an INT and Leonard gets nowhere with a shovel pass. Nugent hits from 37 for the lead.

Bengals 10-7.

Yates hits Owen Daniels short over the middle on 3rd-and-4 to convert Houston's first third down of the game. Maybe. Cincinnati's players really think it's incomplete, or possibly an interception, and Lewis challenges the play. It's their last challenge of the game, making you really wonder about Lewis blowing that challenge earlier. It's a very tough call.

Referees get it correct on further review. Daniels has possession, then Howard comes through trying to scrape it away, but Daniels is already down with possession by then. Good call by the refs both times.

Yates floats one to Andre Johnson at the sideline at the Bengal 25 to convert a 3rd-and-long. Manny Lawson does a nice job to blow up a screen pass at the 2:00 warning, leaving Houston another 3rd-and-long just outside the red zone. The Bengals get away with a STUPID blitz call when Kelly Jennings breaks up an end zone pass for Johnson. Neil Rackers squeaks it through from about 40 for the tie.

10-10.

Bengals with 1:48 to make it happen before halftime. Thanks to the earlier and failed challenges, they have only one timeout. Dalton scrambles for 15 at about the 1:00 mark, then, the next play, WHAAAAAAA?

J.J. Watt swallows up a pass at the line of scrimmage and returns it 29 yards for a defensive TD for Houston. Excellent athletic play by the rookie. On the other hand, I have no idea who Dalton thought he was throwing to. Houston had that side of the field blanketed.

That play has all the makings of a turning point of the game.

Texans 17-10.

Cincinnati looks like they're running the clock out, but after about a 20-yard draw by Leonard, Lewis calls a timeout to set up one last play with :08 left. That ends with Watt sacking Dalton, and Houston riding into the locker room with momentum aplenty.

HALFTIME

I criticized the Bengals for blitzing earlier, but I think Mike Zimmer better release the hounds in the 2nd half, because Yates has appeared to settle down. Foster has run pretty successfully, though, so Houston's got the opportunity to take the blitzing weapon out of Cincinnati's hands. If you had Brian Leonard as the Bengals' leading rusher at halftime, btw, step up and claim your prize.


Since they're not my team, I'll go out on a limb and risk their luck here. This should be Houston's game to polish off. They can run on offense and they've forced Cincinnati out of their running game.

THIRD QUARTER
I liked that Cincinnati came out of halftime with two runs, but Antonio Smith, who's having an excellent game, blew Benson up on the second one, and the Bengals are losing their composure now, with a penalty for 12 men in the huddle and a Martzian timeout barely a minute into the quarter. Dalton better get them a first down this play. Nope. Smith comes up big again, flushes Dalton, and Leonard doesn't get too far with the dumpoff.

Now it's the Bengal defense that needs to come up big. Foster covers 17 yards on two runs with the Texans o-line dominating, but then Houston goes to the pass, comes up empty on 2nd down, and the Bengals drop Yates with a corner blitz on 3rd down. Didn't count on Houston to be too dumb to stay with what's working.

Antonio Smith continues to own Nate Livings, which actually isn't a big surprise, and Smith sacks Dalton to end a promising Bengal drive that had gotten out to midfield. Houston gets away with the blitz on 3rd-and-long but not with the block in the back on the punt return, drawn by Leonard.

Houston opens the next drive with a pretty play, a 13-yard screen to Foster beating a blitz by Manny Lawson and Chris Crocker. After Foster gets the Texans to midfield, Crocker BLOWS an interception, and Yates beats a blitz and finds Johnson for a 1st down on 3rd-and-6. 2:08 left in the 3rd. I think Cincinnati's running out of time; they'd better make a play soon.

Cincinnati's blitzing heavily like I thought they'd have to, but it's not getting there, and Yates makes them pay with a 40-yard TD to Johnson, who beats the snot out of Pac-Man Jones with a double-move. Yes, Jones was shaken up a couple of plays earlier, but he's having a terrible game nonetheless. Foster ran through him on Houston's first TD and he's been terrible against the run all game.

Looks like Houston's heading to Baltimore to me.

Texans 24-10.

Hooray for Andre Johnson, btw, appearing in the first playoff game of his 9-year career.

Jerome Simpson literally hurdles his way to a 16-yard gain, followed by Jermaine Gresham's first catch, for 10, getting Cincinnati to midfield as the quarter expires.

FOURTH QUARTER
Houston takes care of that momentum with their fourth sack. Dalton misses an open deep connection to Simpson, then hits Gresham for 16, and....

CINCINNATI'S NOT PUNTING ON 4th-and-3, ARE THEY?

And now Houston's calling timeout? Is it because they can't believe Lewis isn't going for it?

I believe TMQ is writing "Game over" in his notebook right about now.

NO - the STUPID timeout by Houston gave Cincinnati time to re-think their decision, and they're going for it. Dalton, though, doesn't have anyone open downfield, gets pressured, and throws a desperation pass for Green in triple coverage that former Bengal Jonathan Joseph STUPIDLY intercepts instead of knocking down, costing the Texans 25-30 yards of field position.

I'll tell you one thing I haven't seen tonight: a team capable of winning in the next round.

The Bengals let Foster get outside for 6 on 3rd-and-5 to keep the clock moving. Tate runs to midfield as the Texans are close to dealing the Bengals the death blow. A strange 3rd-and-5 call, though, a pitch left to fullback James Casey, forces a punt. Cincinnati's failure to stop that first Foster sweep, though, cost them six minutes of game clock, and Turk's punt pins them inside the 10 with about 7:30 left.

The Bengals only have the ball two plays when a Dalton overthrow is picked off by Danieal Manning just short of midfield. Start the bus.

Foster goes around right end for a much too easy 42-yard TD run to stick a fork in the Bengals and screws the hell out of those of us who had the under. Start loading the bus. Foster has 153 yards tonight.

Texans 31-10

We've officially reached the look-ahead portion of game coverage.  Foster was excellent, but that last TD wasn't really an important play. Since I can't pick out a single defensive player to give the award to, let's give the Star of the Game to Wade Phillips. Houston took Benson out of the game, forced huge turnovers, and Green didn't catch a pass in the 2nd half until there were about 3:00 left. Excellent total defensive effort.

I don't really see a T.J. Yates-led offense having much of a chance in Baltimore next week, though. Houston has a good offensive line, but I don't know if it's good enough to take care of Haloti Ngata.

Cincinnati's got a lot of good pieces to build on. I might look at outside linebackers first for next year if I were them. They got run on too easily tonight, and from watching several Bengals games this year, especially against tougher competition (and Cinci's 0-8 now against winning teams), they just don't get enough plays from OLB. Livings is a real weak link in that offensive line from what I've seen, and they should go after a 3rd WR who's a serious  big-play threat to group with Green and Simpson. They get Leon Hall back next season, and if Carlos Dunlap can stay healthy, too, the Bengals are a team that has really reached re-loading mode.

On to New Orleans.