Joe Burrow threw two touchdown passes to Ja’Marr Chase and the Cincinnati Bengals are off to their second straight 2-0 start after notching a 20-6 road victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon.
Burrow completed 20 of 31 passes for 207 yards and Chase had seven receptions for 75 yards while posting his 14th career outing of two or more touchdown catches. Chase had just two catches for 12 yards in Week 1.
Evan McPherson kicked two field goals of over 50 yards, Tee Higgins had five catches for 95 yards and Chase Brown rushed for 80 yards on 20 carries for the Bengals.
C.J. Stroud was 30-of-55 passing for 353 yards for the Texans (0-2), who lost at home for the second straight week. Dalton Schultz established career bests of 12 catches for 140 yards for Houston, which lost despite registering five sacks.
The Texans played without standout receiver Nico Collins (hamstring).
The Bengals took a 10-3 lead when McPherson drilled a 51-yard field goal with 12:28 left in the third quarter.
Nearly 9 1/2 minutes later, The Burrow-Chase show was back. This time, Burrow was on the move when he spotted Chase and delivered an 18-yard scoring pass to give the Bengals a 14-point advantage with 3:03 remaining.
Ka’imi Fairbairn drilled a 45-yard field goal with 35 seconds left in the period to pull the Texans within 17-6.
McPherson answered with a 57-yard field goal with 12:16 left in the game to restore Cincinnati’s 14-point lead.
The Texans failed to convert a fourth-and-1 from their 41 to give the ball back to the Bengals with 3:15 left. Houston later got the ball back, but Cedric Johnson sacked Stroud on fourth down with 12 seconds left to seal it.
Cincinnati led 7-3 at halftime and the touchdown came when Chase made a stellar 32-yard grab from Burrow with 3:29 left in the second quarter. Chase shed tight coverage from Texans cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. and somehow got both feet down by the pylon.
Houston received a 37-yard field goal by Fairbairn with 1:17 left in the half but squandered two other trips into the red zone.
Early in the second quarter, Fairbairn lined up for a 34-yard field goal but holder Kai Kroeger couldn’t handle the long snap from Austin Brinkman and ended up throwing the ball away.
On Houston’s ensuing drive, it had fourth-and-1 from the Cincinnati 18. David Montgomery received the handoff, but Bengals nose tackle Dexter Lawrence shot through two lineman and stuffed him for a 1-yard loss.