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Cincinnati
Bengals
Texans hold 'em
as Bengals run ends
HOUSTON — It was hard to figure what was more amazing about the Bengals
19-13 loss to the Texans in Saturday's Wild Card game at Reliant
Stadium.
That they played so badly on offense while failing to score a touchdown
or convert a third down. Or that they still had a chance with 2:57 left
to win it, when quarterback Andy Dalton overthrew an open A.J. Green in
the end zone by so much that his Pro Bowl wide receiver couldn't touch
it even as he stretched out his 6-4 frame.
"Our defense played lights-out this whole season," Green said. "It
hurts to see them play so well and we're out there struggling on
offense and not giving them the blow they need sometime. We're not
doing our part on offense."
It is the epitaph of the 2012 season that ended so mysteriously on
offense and so well on defense and stalks this franchise into the
offseason still seeking head coach Marvin Lewis's first playoff
victory. The brutal 198-yard effort that included Dalton's second-worst
passing game of his career marked the second time in two elimination
games in the last three weeks the offense didn't score a touchdown and
no doubt has them going back to the drawing board as the offseason
dawns.
"It was a bad performance for us offensively. Hats off to the defense
for what they were able to do," said left tackle Andrew Whitworth.
"I'll shoulder it. I'll find a way to get (the team) better."
Whitworth, one of the locker-room leaders and veterans, had a message
for the raft of first- and second-year players that populate his
offense.
"We're making strides," Whitworth said. "We keep knocking on the door.
If you keep knocking on the door, somewhere you find that hole you get
through.
"We're young as crap. We're seriously young. We've got a lot of young
guys playing in these environments for the first time. We'll get
better. It's my job to make us better. Like I told (some) of our young
guys, put it on me, let me shoulder it. I'll find a way for us to get
better."
This was supposed to be The Day. The Bengals were hot. Winners of seven
of the last eight with the stingiest defense in the league over the
second half of the season that was allowing nothing on the ground (97
rushing yards per game in those last eight) and nothing on the
scoreboard at 12.8 points per game. Even the national pundits who
rustled this week to realize the Bengals had made the playoffs for the
third time in four games had them beating a Texans team that had lost
three of its last four and had squandered a playoff bye with last
week's ugly loss in Indianapolis…
Read the rest of the article at Cincinnati Bengals
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