It was the same old Houston Texans offense and its problems in loss to Cincinnati Bengals

There was a brief moment Sunday afternoon, not long after the Houston Texans lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, when it felt a little like déjà vu.

Coach DeMeco Ryans was in the team’s auditorium, fielding questions about why the offense failed to score a touchdown. In the locker room, his players talked in hushed tones before answering questions from reporters about how they could bounce back from yet another 0-2 start.

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The Texans’ season-opening loss to the Bills inspired confidence that perhaps their offense had turned a corner. Their 20-6 loss to the Bengals on Sunday destroyed every bit of it.

Instead, the loss showed that the Texans’ offense hasn’t changed much. It still struggles in the red zone. It still struggles to run the ball. And it desperately needs more playmakers. 

WEEK 2 REPORT CARD: Grading Texans’ loss to Bengals

In fairness, Nico Collins, Houston‘s top playmaker, didn’t play Sunday. He was out with a hamstring injury that will likely sideline him for several weeks. Starting right guard Ed Ingram also was out with a groin injury.

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But injuries happen, and they’ve happened often to Collins during his six-year career in Houston.

Without him, quarterback C.J. Stroud was pretty good. He completed 30 of 55 passes for 353 yards, spreading the ball around to his various receivers.

But he was sacked four times in the fourth quarter and had no help from his running game. David Montgomery and Woody Marks combined for just 18 yards on 14 carries, in part because of the offensive line’s inability to win at the line of scrimmage.

“A lot of it is want-to,” rookie left guard Keylan Rutledge said. “You’ve got to want to move the person. We didn’t move them.”

The Texans had a 16.7% rushing success rate, according to TruMedia. Only 32 teams among 2,227 qualifiers had a lower rushing success rate on at least 10 rushes since 2022.

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The Texans’ offensive line rarely got a push against the Bengals’ defensive line. One-third of the Texans’ 18 rushing attempts failed to cross the line of scrimmage. Their longest run – not by a quarterback or wide receiver – went for just 4 yards.

That lack of a running game was especially evident in the red zone, an area the Texans dominated last week against the Bills.

Sunday, the Texans ran four plays in the red zone for a whopping 4 yards. They finished 0-for-4 in the red zone and 0-for-4 on fourth downs.

“The formula for beating a team never changes. You have to score more points,” said Wyatt Teller, who started at right guard in place of Ingram. “It’s annoying. It sucks. You never want to lose a game, but it’s right there. I said that when we were coming off the field every drive: ‘Boys, look how close we are to the end zone.’

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“It doesn’t feel like we followed the formula for success, so we lost.”

BENGALS 20, TEXANS 6

Second Quarter

Cin_Chase 32 pass from Burrow (McPherson kick), 3:29. Drive: 7 plays, 81 yards, 3:24. Key Plays: Burrow 18 pass to T.Higgins on 3rd-and-8; Burrow 23 pass to T.Higgins on 3rd-and-4. Cincinnati 7, Houston 0.

Hou_FG Fairbairn 37, 1:17. Drive: 10 plays, 54 yards, 2:12. Key Plays: T.Smith kick return to Houston 27; Stroud 13 pass to Hutchinson; Stroud 15 pass to Schultz; Stroud 18 pass to Hutchinson. Cincinnati 7, Houston 3.

Third Quarter

Cin_FG McPherson 51, 12:28. Drive: 4 plays, 8 yards, 2:02. Key Play: Burrow 7 pass to Iosivas on 3rd-and-9. Cincinnati 10, Houston 3.

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Cin_Chase 18 pass from Burrow (McPherson kick), 3:03. Drive: 8 plays, 52 yards, 4:26. Key Plays: Burrow 16 pass to Perine on 3rd-and-7; C.Brown 11 run. Cincinnati 17, Houston 3.

Hou_FG Fairbairn 45, :35. Drive: 8 plays, 42 yards, 2:28. Key Plays: Marks kick return to Houston 31; Stroud 11 run; Stroud 21 pass to Boutte. Cincinnati 17, Houston 6.

Fourth Quarter

Cin_FG McPherson 57, 12:16. Drive: 8 plays, 33 yards, 3:19. Key Plays: Meyers kick return to Cincinnati 28; Burrow 23 pass to T.Higgins on 3rd-and-5. Cincinnati 20, Houston 6.

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INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING_Cincinnati, C.Brown 20-80, Perine 2-6, Burrow 1-(minus 1). Houston, Stroud 3-29, Noel 1-13, Montgomery 6-10, Marks 8-8.

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PASSING_Cincinnati, Burrow 20-31-0-207. Houston, Stroud 30-55-0-353, Kroeger 0-1-0-0.

RECEIVING_Cincinnati, Chase 7-75, Higgins 5-95, C.Brown 3-2, All 2-5, Perine 1-16, Iosivas 1-7, Young 1-7. Houston, Schultz 12-140, Marks 5-27, Boutte 3-37, Hutchinson 3-37, Moreau 2-34, Wayne 2-33, Montgomery 2-14, Noel 1-31.

PUNT RETURNS_Cincinnati, Meyers 3-19. Houston, Noel 3-32.

KICKOFF RETURNS_Cincinnati, Meyers 3-90. Houston, Marks 2-40, Noel 1-31, T.Smith 1-22.

TACKLES-ASSISTS-SACKS_Cincinnati, Knight 4-8-0, D.Hill 4-6-0, Battle 4-4-0, Turner 4-1-0, Cook 3-1-0, Allen 3-0-1, Carter 2-3-0, C.Johnson 2-1-2, J.Davis 2-1-0, Lawrence 2-1-0, Stewart 2-0-1, Slaton 2-0-0, Mafe 1-1-0, T.Davis 1-0-0, Jenkins 1-0-0, Murphy 1-0-0, Howell 0-1-0. Houston, Al-Shaair 6-6-0, Anderson 4-4-1, Lassiter 4-1-0, Blankenship 3-2-0, Pitre 3-1-0, L.Hall 2-1-1, Rankins 2-1-1, Stingley 2-1-0, Togiai 1-5-0, Hansen 1-3-0, Harsh 1-1-.5, Hunter 1-0-1, J.Smith 1-0-0, Edwards 0-4-.5.

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INTERCEPTIONS_Cincinnati, None. Houston, None.

MISSED FIELD GOALS_Houston, Fairbairn 58.

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OFFICIALS_Referee Adrian Hill, Ump Roy Ellison, HL Danny Short, LJ Julian Mapp, FJ Tra Boger, SJ Glen Fucik, BJ Greg Steed, Replay Bob Hubbell.

Perhaps the most critical red-zone failure happened with 6:58 left in the second quarter. The Texans were facing fourth-and-inches – 2 inches, to be exact – from the Bengals’ 18-yard line. They lined up in an I-formation with six offensive linemen and a tight end forming a wall. A fullback was in the backfield, serving as the lead blocker.

But almost as soon as Stroud handed the ball to Montgomery, Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence was already in his face after blowing past Rutledge.

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Lawrence, a massive human being standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 351 pounds, wrapped his arms around Montgomery and brought him to the ground with such force that even Montgomery couldn’t keep himself upright.

The Texans lost 2 yards on fourth-and-inches.

Turnover on downs.

Rutledge took the blame for the play. He admitted he should have gotten in front of Lawrence quicker.

‘He just beat me,’ Rutledge said.

The turnover on downs in that situation was pivotal for a variety of reasons. Had the Texans converted, they would have had a chance to go up either 7-0 or, at worst, 3-0.

Had they converted, perhaps Ryans wouldn’t have settled for a field-goal attempt when the Texans were facing fourth-and-inches again with 7:33 left in the third quarter.

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The field-goal attempt was from 58 yards – a distance Kaimi Fairbairn has hit from several times. But this time, he missed short, giving the Bengals the ball back at midfield.

Nine plays later, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who was flushed to his right by the Texans’ pass rush, hit an open Ja’Marr Chase in the end zone for an 18-yard touchdown. It gave the Bengals a 17-3 lead with 3:12 remaining in the third quarter – a lead the Texans’ offense wasn’t built to overcome without Collins and a running game.

Ryans pushed back on the narrative that Collins’ injury had a significant effect on the loss.

‘The bottom line is everybody is here, everybody gets paid to go make plays,’ Ryans said. ‘We have to find a way to go do that.’

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Running the football was supposed to be the Texans’ identity. They were supposed to be physical and win at the line of scrimmage.

But they were dominated instead. In the fourth quarter, they were forced to abandon the run.

Does Ryans deserve blame? Yes. He’s the man in charge, the one making the important calls. He overestimated what the Texans had on offense.

But general manager Nick Caserio deserves blame, too, because he’s the one who put this team together. And it’s clear as the blue water in Puerto Rico that this team doesn’t have the offensive depth it has on defense to withstand an injury to its best playmaker.

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It’s like it’s 2025 all over again.

The question is whether the Texans have the talent to turn it around as they did then.

‘Sadly, we’ve been here before, but I think we just have to hold each other accountable,’ said Stroud, who entered his postgame news conference limping. ‘We have to get better. There are a lot of things that we need to be doing better if we’re going to win. I think we’ll have some conversations this week about that and get some things fixed.’

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This article originally published at It was the same old Houston Texans offense and its problems in loss to Cincinnati Bengals.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com