Official Texans vs. Bengals Game Thread, 12/24/2016

[Arky]

Week 16 finds the 5-8-1 Cincinnati Bengals coming to NRG for the rare Saturday Night game on CBS/NFLN. The Bengals are coming off a home loss to the Steelers 24-20. Bengal QB Andy Dalton is having a decent enough year throwing for 3712 yards, hitting at a 64.4% completion rate with 16 TDs and 7 INTs and a 91.9 rating. The main rusher for the Bengals is Jeremy Hill (831 yds, 3.9 avg). RB Giovani Bernard tore his ACL in the Buffalo game is on IR. Dalton's favorite targets in the passing game are AJ Green (964 yds, 14.6 avg), Brandon LaFell (665 yds, 13.0 avg), Tyler Boyd (539 yds, 10.8 avg) and Tyler Eifert (394 yds, 13.6 avg). On the other side of the ball, the Bengal defense is currently rated 21st giving up 359.1 yds/gm and 11th giving up 20.9 pts/gm. The Bengal's giveaway/takeaway is currently at +2 (Texans at -8).

The Texans are coming off a 21-20 home win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. This game could or could not have playoff implications for them - it depends on how the Titans do earlier in the day....

These two teams met last year on MNF with the Texans pulling out the 10-6 road win.

Bengals are 4-10 ATS (against the spread). Texans are 6-7-1 ATS.

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TV = NFLN/CBS, 7:25 pm, Saturday, Dec 24

Announcers = Kevin Harlan, Rich Gannon

The line = Texans by 1½ to pickem

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Saturday viewing in the Houston area:

CBS (early) = Tennessee @ Jacksonville, Andrew Catalon, Steve Beuerlein, Steve Tasker

FOX (early) = Minnesota @ Green Bay, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman

FOX (late) = Arizona @ Seattle, Kevin Burkhardt, John Lynch

NFLN Sunday late afternoon = Baltimore @ Pittsburgh, Mike Tirico, Doug Flutie

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Other prime time:

TNF = NY Giants @ Philadelphia (NBC; NFLN), Mike Tirico, Cris Collinsworth

SNF = Denver @ Kansas City (NBC)

MNF = Detroit @ Dallas (ESPN)