Week 4 Game Recap: Houston Texans 10, Cincinnati Bengals 16

What you need to know

Houston Texans

Coming off a bye week, the Texans played their best game of the year, but fell to 0-3 in a hard fought loss on the road. During the bye week, the Texans fired offensive coordinator Chris Palmer, and replaced him with offensive line coach Joe Pendry. The switch did not provide for immediate dividends in the win column, but when they could avoid the sack, David Carr did a better job of keeping the offense moving.

David Carr finished the day with 17 completions on 26 attempts for 174 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions, but coughed the ball up with less than four minutes left in the game, and trailing only 13-10. The Texans’ leading and most targeted receiver against the Bengals was Jabar Gaffney, who caught six passes for 88 yards. Andre Johnson seemed to disappear at various points throughout the game, and caught only three passes for 38 yards. Carr spread the ball out evenly throughout his backfield and tight ends when the Bengals brought a heavy rush, completing four passes to Domanick Davis, two passes to Jonathan Wells and one touchdown pass to fullback Moran (Moochie) Norris.

The Texans tied the game several times, but played a majority of the game from behind, and were unable to establish any significant tempo on the ground. Domanick Davis finished with 19 carries for 81 yards. Jonathan Wells received the only other carry amongst running backs, and took it for ten yards. David Carr was consistently flushed out of the pocket, and was credited with 35 yards on three carries.

Cincinnati Bengals

For the first time since 1988 (when the Bengals lost to the 49ers in the Super Bowl), Cincinnati opened their season at 4-0. The Bengals squandered a number of opportunities in the red zone due to penalties. Key injuries to the offensive line forced the offense to adapt on the fly when they lost their top centers, and forced guard Eric Steinbach to move over to the center position.

Carson Palmer continued to build upon his successful season, completing 25 of 34 passes for 276 yards and one touchdown. Palmer’s primary target in this game was T.J. Houshmandzadeh, who caught eight passes for 105 yards. Houshmandzadeh had an early touchdown pass called back due to an illegal shift on Rudi Johnson, Chad Johnson came on late when the game was on the line, and pulled in seven balls for 67 yards. At the end of the first half, Chris Henry appeared to catch a 26 yard touchdown pass, but after a review, he was ruled out of bounds, though he did draw a defensive pass interference on the play. The beneficiary of the penalty was fullback Jeremi Johnson, who caught a one yard touchdown pass on the next play. Rudi Johnson did not catch any passes out of the backfield, but backup Chris Perry was worked into the gameplan both out of the backfield and lined up as a wide receiver, catching four passes for 29 yards.

Despite adjustments on the offensive line due to injuries, the Bengals were still able to move the ball well on the ground. Rudi Johnson ended the day with 19 carries for 88 yards while running mate Chris Perry had four carries for six yards.

What you ought to know

QB David Carr, Pass: 17 - 26 - 174 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 3 - 35 - 0

Carr had a 97.3 passer rating on the day, but with it a key fumble with 3:18 remaining which kept his team from winning. Carr was sacked seven times, which stopped a number of drives and kept him from building any significant rhythm. Carr avoided the key interception that the Bengals had been so proficient in causing over the first few weeks of the season, but his 6.7 yards per attempt average was not enough to keep the offense moving.

RB Domanick Davis, Rush: 19 - 81 - 0, Rec: 4 - 31 - 0 (5 targets)

Davis averaged 4.3 yards per carry, and finished the day with over 100 combined yards, but did not find the end zone as the Texans only found themselves in the red zone twice in the game. Nine of Davis’ nineteen carries went for at least five yards, but he could not break the big one.

RB Jonathan Wells, Rush: 1 - 10 - 0, Rec: 2 - 5 - 0 (2 targets)

Wells was used as the primary back to spell Domanick Davis in this game and got three touches. Vernand Morency did not receive any touches in this game, and Tony Hollings was inactive.

RB Moran Norris, Rec: 1 - 4 - 1 (1 targets)

Norris made a four yard touchdown reception in the third quarter.

WR Jabar Gaffney, Rec: 6 - 88 - 0 (6 targets)

Gaffney caught all six balls intended for him, and made the most of his opportunities as the Bengals seemed intent on shutting down Andre Johnson.

WR Andre Johnson, Rec: 3 - 38 - 0 (5 targets)

The Bengals’ pass rush combined with their blanketing secondary limited Andre Johnson from getting many looks in this game. Two of the three passes Johnson caught went for first downs, but as the primary playmaker, he was not able to gain more than sixteen yards on any catch.

WR Corey Bradford, Rec: 1 - 8 - 0 (2 targets)

Bradford had a very limited role in this game, as the Texans used multiple tight end sets to protect against the Bengals’ pass rush throughout much of the game.

TE Marcellus Rivers (2 targets)

Rivers was the only tight end targeted in this game, but did not catch a pass.

PK Kris Brown 1 - 1 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 4 points

Brown kicked his first field goal of the year from 28 yards out early in the second quarter, and added an extra point midway through the third quarter.

HOU Rush Defense

The Bengals’ rushing offense averaged 133 yards per game coming in, but were held under 100 yards in their closest game of the year by the Texans’ rush defense.

HOU Pass Defense

The Texans could not slow down T.J. Houshmandzadeh and Chad Johnson, giving up 276 yards through the air, and not creating enough pressure to cause Carson Palmer to struggle, finishing with just two sacks.

QB Carson Palmer, Pass: 25 - 34 - 276 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 1 - -1 - 0

Palmer entered the day with a passer rating of 114.0 and kept the momentum going with a 107.0 passer rating against the Texans. Palmer averaged 8.1 yards per passing attempt, and was able to find openings in the Texans’ secondary throughout the entire game.

RB Rudi Johnson, Rush: 19 - 88 - 0 (2 targets)

Johnson averaged 4.6 yards per carry, and like his opponent Domanick Davis, had nine carries of his nineteen carries go for five yards or more.

RB Chris Perry, Rush: 4 - 6 - 0, Rec: 4 - 29 - 0 (6 targets)

Perry was used out of a number of different sets in this game in an effort by the coaches to get the former first round draft pick as many touches as possible. He finished with eight touches for 35 yards on the day, and continues to provide versatility to this explosive offense. Perry’s biggest play of the day came on the first drive, when he recovered a Carson Palmer fumble in the red zone and kept the drive alive for a Shayne Graham field goal.

RB Jeremi Johnson, Rec: 1 - 1 - 1 (1 targets)

Johnson made a one yard reception to score the only touchdown of the game for the Bengals.

WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Rush: 1 - 5 - 0, Rec: 8 - 105 - 0 (12 targets)

Houshmandzadeh went over one hundred yards and was Carson Palmer’s favorite target in this game. Houshmandzadeh briefly had a touchdown pass on the Bengals’ first drive of the game; however it was called back due to an illegal shift by Rudi Johnson on the play. This is the third touchdown brought back against Houshmandzadeh this season; otherwise his numbers would be much larger.

WR Chad Johnson, Rec: 7 - 67 - 0 (9 targets)

Johnson saw heavy coverage throughout the entire game, and as a result, Carson Palmer wisely spread the ball around until late in the game, when Chad Johnson made a number of key catches on the go ahead drive in the fourth quarter.

WR Chris Henry, Rec: 2 - 34 - 0 (3 targets)

Like teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Henry briefly thought he had scored a go ahead touchdown, but officials ruled he had stepped out of bounds. The rookie, who drew a defensive pass interference on the play, has stepped up and taken the role of the third receiver in this offense and made a number of big plays. Teammate Kelley Washington was inactive in this game.

TE Reggie Kelly, Rec: 2 - 20 - 0 (2 targets)

Kelly made both of his receptions during the second drive of the third quarter.

TE Matt Schobel, Rec: 1 - 20 - 0 (2 targets)

Multiple injuries to the offensive line forced the Bengals to utilize a number of blocking tight end sets with Reggie Kelly and Tony Stewart, and limited the number of pass routes which Matt Schobel was able to run.

PK Shayne Graham 3 - 4 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 10 points

Penalties in the red zone kept the Bengals from putting up big points in this game, but Graham was the beneficiary of this inefficiency. Graham connected on three of four field goal attempts, hitting from 24, 27 and 46 yards and missing wide right from 42 yards.

CIN Rush Defense

The Bengals led much of the game, and were not significantly challenged by the rushing attack of the Texans, despite the fact that Domanick Davis was moving the ball when given the opportunity to do so. Counting the scrambling yards of David Carr, the Bengals gave up 126 yards on the ground, but the pass defense was strong enough to keep the Bengals on top in this one.

CIN Pass Defense

The blitz schemes of Marvin Lewis’ defense yielded seven sacks in this game, and kept David Carr from developing any rhythm. 36 intended pass plays (26 passing attempts, seven sacks and three scrambles for positive yardage) yielded just 163 net yards, which was the primary reason the Bengals one this game despite not intercepting a pass after a league leading twelve interceptions thus far on the season.