Rackers kickoff is downed in the endzone. Bengals ball at their 20.

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Screen to Leonard gets 10 and a 1st down.

Pass to Simpson good for 9. 2nd and 1 coming up.

Dump to Leonard only gets about 1. Nice tackle Cush but a 1st down.

Draw play to Leonard goes for another 1st down. Under 4 minutes left.

Pass to Gresham gets 9.

Pass to Gresham gets 3. 1st down at the Texans 30.

Dump pass to Scott is dropped. 3:13 left in the game. 2nd and 10 coming up.

Pass to Green goes for 5. 3rd and 5 coming up.

Dump off to Scott goes for 11 and the 1st down.

Dalton's pass goes out of the endzone, inc. 2nd and 10 coming up at the Texan 14.

Flags presnap. Offside Texans -5. Makes it 2nd and 5 coming up.

Pass over the middle to Hawkins is broken up by McCain, inc. 3rd and 5 coming up.

Dalton's pass is batted down at the LOS by Mitchell. Makes it 4th and 5. Bengals to go for it.

Dalton uses the last timeout cause the formation is wrong.... 2:28 left in the game.

On 4th and 5, pass is batted down by JJo! Texans takeover on downs. Ball at their 9 yard line.

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Tate for about 3. 2nd and 7 coming up.

2 minute warning.

Tate for about 6. 3rd and 1 coming up. Clock is under 1.5 minutes....

Tate rambles for about 7, 1st down.

Texans kneeling it out.

Final score:

Texans 31, Bengals 10

Awesome. :D On to Baltimore.......

Wow. Texans win. Looking good all phases, lots of big plays everywhere. No turnovers, few penalties, great game.

Maybe just me, but even Kareem Jackson did ok to day.

I am so happy for everyone who comes to this board. What a great game. Team effort. Big play after big play. I think next week will be a good, tough game, regardless of the outcome. Enjoy it everyone.

The team played a shaky first half and a great second half. They'll need two great halves to win next week. I know they have it in them.

Time to go to Baltimore and get Omar on them, oh indeed.

OK now, anybody still got a problem with extending Kubiaks contract ?

Great game. The defense was asleep for the first 20 minutes. No pressure on Dalton early. But From the sack to knock them back out of FG range on, our front 3 dominated like I've never seen from a 34 DL. No running game for cincy and Watt, Smith, and Mitchell living in the backfield. Not to mention Watt snatching a fastball from 2 yards away. Great day to be a Texans fan.

Early line for Texans vs. Ravens: Ravens by 7.5

Man, could not get any connection with either Sprint or Verizon inside the stadium today.

You know, I thought people were batsh*& when they thought it would be better for the Texans to miss out on that first round bye... especially since it meant losing a home game for the Divisional round. But... that 1st qtr and halfway or so into the 2nd qtr is evidence that this team needed to shake off both some rust and jitters before settling in.

They could get away with it against the Bengals. Not sure they would have been able to against a better team like the Steelers/Ravens/Pats in their first playoff game.

Having Andre back, even at less than 100%, really helped to open things up a little for Arian too. Whole offense just works better when he is on the field.

The lack of pass rush in the first half had me thinking about missing Mario for the first time in awhile.

Wah Freakin Who.

That. Is. All.

Time to pass out. Catch ya'll tomorrow.

Plane tix and hotel to Bmore are booked.

WOW! What a game. I was at the last the playoff game when Montana basically scared Buddy Ryan into a base defense and a loss. This game today was a lot more fun to watch.

For a safe draft pick, Watts had a huge season and he is going to be a beast for us. What a game he had.

I successfully did not find out anything until I could come home from my prior commitment and watch the game on the DVR. Great game, guys! Didn't feel like it for the first 29 minutes but Watt's pick was clearly the play of the game.

Yates threw some WTF passes that have me a bit worried for next week but we overcame them to win going away. I also was getting worried we were overworking Foster toward the end. I wanted to see Ward those last couple of series.

Houston, you've waited a long long time for this. Stop to enjoy it before worrying about next week. The Ravens saw a team that was still learning how to play the 3-4 and I think we'll be better defensively than we were back then.

Damn, dude, that is solid. How the hell did you score the tickets?

Thru that NFL ticket exchange site. We ended up paying about $250 per. Upper deck level, but whatever.

A buddies wife had some free air tix, that's always nice.

Might not turn out great for us, but should still be pretty fun.

Afterthoughts:

1. When it came apparent the Texans would make the playoffs, I don't know how many times I read "one and done" not necessarily here, but at other forums/blogs/messageboards. (Where do all these people with their dirty crystal balls come from?)

2. Looked like Braman reaggravated the stinger injury. Anyone have updates? Besides that, I think the Texans came out pretty healthy.....

3. The Texans with the midseason 7-game winning streak showed up yesterday. After the slow/jittery/OMGweareintheplayoffs start, they played pretty good football.

4. Offense scored 24 pts and the defense (Watt) kicked in 7 more. Nice to see after all the harping from local radio guys about the 18 pts/game avg. since Schaub went down.

5. Baltimore will be a huge challenge. The Texans are 0-5 all time against them. The Ravens are rested up and have playoff experience. If the Texans have a chance, they'll have to get a couple of turnovers and hold Ray Rice in check. In the first meeting, the pressure on Flacco was good but I recall many times, just as he was about to be sacked, he got the ball out for a big gainer. There were 8 QB hits but just two sacks (both by Jamison) in that game - going to need to do a better job in that area. AJ didn't play in that first game so, his presence should help. Interesting that the Ravens -7.5 pt spread is exactly the same as it was back in Week 6...

10 AM (PCT) start for the Texans next Sunday in Vegas - wife and I will be cheering them on from our hotels nearest Sports-Bar on the Strip.

Do I dare dream of an AFC Championship Game at Reliant?

I don't even have the words to describe how incredible yesterday was.

I would have done ANYTHING to be inside Reliant for that.

Onto Baltimore. MUST win time of possession.

Go to NY/NY to the ESPN center. They have a semi/private room at the back of the bar area where you have your own private waiter, recliner chairs and monster screens. Pretty cool. I watched a Super Bowl there a few years ago. Get there early and they have a min/hr spend, but it isn't rediculouse, something 20 bucks per person. Pretty easy to meet that number. Just serves drinks and bar food like wings and such.

Some people sit when they watch the Texans play?

Thanks for the info, we might check it out.

Sadly, our trip has crashed and burned. :(
My buddy turned out not to be master of his domain ;)

Oh well, tickets were flipped back in less than 24 hours, and he is footing the convienence charges.

Bummer.

Well, that sucks.

My sympathies. I'm not sure I'd be that interested in shivering in a Maryland January day in a hostile crowd anyway. I'm holding out hope we can host the AFC Championship at Reliant. Miracles do happen.

Not so subtle Tebow referece implied. :p

On paper, the AFC matchups this weekend seem to really favor the home teams, but crazy stuff has happened in the Divisional round.

For a trip down memory lane, here is the link to the game thread for the Ravens game back in October: http://www.inthebullseye.com/forums/...ead.php?t=1364

It always amuses me to go back and re-read the roller coaster of emotions of being an NFL fan. Good stuff!