Bengals at Texans: Highlights, score and recap

The Houston Texans were suddenly in position to capture another AFC South title with a victory over the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday night.

Thanks to a missed field goal, it will be an amazing Christmas for the Houston Texans.

For the second straight year and the fourth time in six seasons, the team has won the AFC South. An ugly 12-10 win over the visiting Cincinnati Bengals gave Bill O’Brien’s club a third straight victory and a 9-6 record.

Tom Savage made his first NFL start in this his third season in the league. While the reviews were far from glowing, a win is a win. And the Texans are back in the playoffs for a second consecutive year.

Highlights

Three Stars

1. Alfred Blue

The Texans have leaned on workhorse Lamar Miller for most of the season. But he wasn’t available tonight. Enter Blue, who ranked second on the team with 319 yards rushing entering this tilt. He finished the evening with 73 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. He also caught four passes for 17 yards and accounted for 90 of the club’s 250 total yards.

2. Tom Savage

It was a tale of two halves for the third-year pro. After 30 minutes of play, Savage was 2-of-7 for a paltry 13 yards. He would warm up a bit after intermissions, hitting on 16 of his 22 throws for 163 yards against the Cincinnati defense. Once again, he played turnover-free football for the club and the bottom line is that he’s brought a little spark to this attack.

3. Whitney Mercilus

The former first-round pick totaled six tackles and two of his team’s three sacks of Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton in the division-clinching victory. Mercilus also had a hand in limiting Cincinnati’s ground attack to only 50 yards on 19 carries.

More fansided.com: NFL power rankings, Week 16: Broncos fall, Titans surge

Odds

The Bengals and Texans are obviously headed in opposite directions but Houston was only a one-point favorite heading into this affair. That’s due largely to the unknown entity in Tom Savage. Meanwhile, the OVER/UNDER was a mere 41 and betting the under proved to be quite fortuitous.

Next Week

The 5-9-1 Bengals won’t be going to the playoffs this year so they will wrap their 2016 with a clash with the Baltimore Ravens. The AFC South champion Texans travel to Nashville to take on a Tennessee Titans’ team that will now be minus quarterback Marcus Mariota.