Cincinnati coach Zac Taylor didn’t hear a solitary protest when he made his group practice in 10-degree climate on Christmas Day on the grounds that the Bengals realized the planning was significant on the off chance that they wanted to at last dominate a street match.
That readiness paid off on Sunday when Samaje Perine scored a 3-yard score late to give the Bengals their first street win in over two years with a 37-31 triumph over the Houston Texans.
“It just tells you all you’ve got to know about the character and the resolve of this football team… I just couldn’t be prouder of the work that they put in here in Week 16,” Taylor said. “We’re out of the playoff hunt. It’s easy for guys to check out right now and we haven’t had a single player do it.”
It’s the primary street win for Taylor, who is in his subsequent season, and the first run through the Bengals (4-10-1) won away from Cincinnati since a 37-36 triumph at Atlanta on Sept. 30, 2018.
“It’s a big deal,” defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “Like I said earlier in the week, we put an emphasis on it and to actually follow up and do it is huge for us.”
The Bengals have dominated two matches in succession unexpectedly this season in the wake of disturbing the Steelers 27-17 on Monday night.
The Texans were driving after Perine’s second score when Deshaun Watson was sacked by Hubbard, who constrained a bumble that Margus Hunt recuperated. The Bengals added a field objective after that to seal the triumph.
It’s the third time in the previous four games that the Texans have gotten an opportunity to win or tie a game late yet lost a bungle all things considered.
“Fumbles that occur at any point in the game, you don’t like them,” interim coach Romeo Crennel said. “But when they occur in situations where you have a chance to win, I think that’s a double whammy in that case.”
The Texans drove 31-27 after Darren Fells conveyed two protectors into the end zone toward the finish of a 22-yard gathering with around six minutes to go.
Perine, who had a season-high 95 yards hurrying, gave Cincinnati the lead when he bulled into the end zone for the thumbs up score with under two minutes to go.
Brandon Allen returned subsequent to missing a week ago’s down with a knee injury and tossed for a vocation high 371 yards with two scores for the Bengals.
“You can just see in these last two weeks that this team knows how close it can be and we’ve finally been able to have two real close games and we put them together to get wins,” he said. “And we can just take that momentum and move it forward.”
Watson tossed for 324 yards and three scores and David Johnson ran for a season-high 128 yards and had a hurrying score and a TD gathering as the Texans (4-11) attached a season high with their fourth consecutive misfortune.
A perturbed J.J. Watt went on a long tirade itemizing the dissatisfactions of the period after the game, however first he summarized the play of Houston’s protection on Sunday.
“We played horrendously,” he said. “That’s harsh, but it’s a fact of what we did today.”
Cincinnati took a 27-24 lead on a 48-yard field objective by Austin Seibert from the get-go in the final quarter.
Perine put the Bengals up 17-10 when he ran 46 yards for a score right off the bat in the second from last quarter. It looked as though he would be halted right off the bat in the flee, yet he spun away from a protector and traveled into the end zone.
The Texans tied it on a 4-yard score run by Johnson on their next belonging.
Cincinnati recovered the lead when tenderfoot Tee Higgins snatched a 20-yard gathering toward the edge of the end zone and figured out how to keep the two feet inbounds for the score with around six minutes left in the third.
Their lead was brief as the Texans tied it again on a 2-yard scoring run by Johnson late in the second from last quarter.
The Bengals took an early lead when Allen discovered Drew Sample all the way open for a 8-yard score on their first drive.
Watson tossed a 50-yard pass to Brandin Cooks on Houston’s next belonging to give the group a first down at the 7. In any case, the offense slowed down after that and the Texans agreed to a 21-yard field objective to slice the lead to 7-3.
The Bengals got an opportunity to add to their lead in the subsequent quarter, however Seibert’s 49-yard field-objective endeavor was wide left. He got one more opportunity later in the second and his endeavor from 35 was acceptable to give Cincinnati a 10-3 lead.
A 25-yard TD gathering by Cooks with two minutes left in the primary half tied it at 10 at halftime.
INJURIES
Bengals: CB William Jackson supported a blackout in the subsequent quarter.
Texans: RG Brent Qvale supported a blackout second quarter. LT Laremy Tunsil harmed his foot in the subsequent quarter and didn’t return.
UP NEXT
Bengals: Host Baltimore next Sunday.
Texans: Host Tennessee next Sunday.