Texans vs. Bengals: What's the Game Plan for Cincinnati?

On paper, the Cincinnati Bengals look like heavy favorites in the team's Week 10 Monday Night Football showdown with the Houston Texans. 

The Bengals tout an 8-0 mark while the Texans flounder at 3-5, but it's still going to take a pristine game plan to upend a beatable opponent and keep the silly prime-time narratives at bay.

After all, these Texans are hungry and, thanks to one of the worst divisions of all time, very much in the playoff hunt. They also happen to feature two of the league's best players who can take over games on their own.

To avoid a hiccup, here's a look at what the Bengals need to do Monday night.

Offensive Game Plan 

Darron Cummings/Associated Press

Get the ball out—fast.

The Bengals do this most of the time already, of course, but it takes precedence Monday night with a guy like J.J. Watt in town.

Watt, who ranks as the No. 1 3-4 defensive end in the NFL at Pro Football Focus with a grade of 42.1 (the next-closest comes in at 26.4), has helped keep the Bengals in check in past outings, including the postseason.

Keep in mind the Bengals aren't 100 percent in the trenches, either, with Andre Smith missing last week's game and Andy Dalton on the wrong end of two sacks. The weaknesses and knowledge the Bengals want to get it out quick aren't lost on coach Bill O’Brien, as he told Paul Dehner Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer:

"

They have a really good quick game where they get the ball out quick to their quick receivers. Andy does a good job getting it out quick. Protection-wise they’ll use some seven-man protections and give some help to some guys. That’s what a lot of teams are doing against us. We have to learn how to combat that and do the best we can to try to limit that.

"

Houston only lets up 227.4 passing yards per game, a top-10 rank, for a reason. But Cincinnati's wealth of weapons can exploit the unit so long as the ball gets out fast, especially with Texans starting corner Kareem Jackson sidelined, according to Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle.

It's an exploitable issue Cincinnati needs considering the Texans have only allowed three touchdowns to tight ends this year, meaning Tyler Eifert might fade while A.J. Green, Marvin Jones and others step up on the outside.

Defensive Game Plan

Frank Victores/Associated Press

Believe it or not, Brian Hoyer's putting together a very respectable season for the Texans when under center, completing 60 percent of his passes with 13 touchdowns to three interceptions and ranking as the 17th-graded quarterback at PFF.

This shouldn't come as a shock, but a deeper dive into those numbers at PFF tells the whole story. Hoyer has a 10-1 touchdowns-interceptions ratio when there's no pressure, and when he's not blitzed at all, it's 11-3.

In other words, Cincinnati needs to blitz early and often to disrupt the timing of the Houston offense. It's an offense that has mostly abandoned the run, amassing 362 passing attempts to 214 rushing and just three scores by running backs this year.

Thank DeAndre Hopkins. The man has a whopping 113 targets already, and he's managed to haul in 66 of those for 870 yards and six scores. The next-closest player on the team has 26 catches.

As great as Adam Jones has been for the Bengals this year, he doesn't stand a chance against Nuk—most don't. A safety over the top and, well, most anything hasn't stopped Nuk even though defenses know it's coming.

What Cincinnati has that most don't? Geno Atkins and a strong pass rush. It needs to hit home often Monday.

Key Players and Matchups

Andre Smith

If Smith can give it a go this weekend after suffering a concussion and missing the team's last game, he's going to be a focal point of the Houston rush.

Smith has struggled in all facets this year, to say the least, ranking as the No. 51 tackle in the league at PFF. One doesn't need rankings to see the problems, though, and neither do the Texans, who can deploy Watt and a bevy of others to his side of the field to cause disruption.

This goes for whoever lines up in Smith's place should he miss the game, too.

Dre Kirkpatrick

Tony Avelar/Associated Press

While Jones gets help with Hopkins, it's Dre Kirkpatrick who more often than not will have to handle things on an island by his lonesome against the Texans.

It doesn't sound terrible, but it's important to keep in mind opposing teams have targeted Kirkpatrick to some success this year. Houston also has a very capable No. 2 wideout in veteran Nate Washington, who can explode given the right matchup, as noted by his six catches for 105 yards in Week 1 and nine for 127 and two touchdowns in Week 7.

Is Monday the right matchup? That might end up being for Kirkpatrick to decide.

A.J. Green

With the Texans down a corner, this has the look of a Green game.

Green hasn't been the most consistent player this year, not because of struggles, but due to the spread-it-out nature of the offense. Last week he caught just four passes and had a minimal impact while Tyler Eifert scored three times.

Given the athleticism and scheme of the Texans, Green will have to win on the outside for the Bengals to keep the chains moving.

Andy Dalton

In every single occurrence of adversity this season, Dalton has exceeded expectations and even turned a sloppy, hey-this-looks-like-last-year game (in Pittsburgh) into a dramatic win.

Now, though, Dalton has to go into the national spotlight against a team that actually has some bite. He's going to be under pressure no matter what tricks the offensive line has up its sleeve, so how he handles it will decide the game outright.

So far, so good, but Watt's on the way.

Prediction

This one smells of a trap game, or at least being closer than most would expect. 

The Bengals and Texans are too familiar with each other in recent years to see one really pull away in dramatic fashion, and Hoyer himself knows how to handle the Bengals given his time spent in Cleveland—he's just surrounded by a much better team this time around.

Look for Watt and Nuk to do serious damage on both sides of the ball. It's almost as inevitable as the dead horse that is talk of Cincinnati's prime-time struggles folks will hear all about on the broadcast.

That said, Cincinnati is the better team and at home. The defense can force mistakes when the pressure hits home, and Dalton shouldn't have too hard a time exploiting a hobbled secondary when his team needs it most.

Look for the Bengals to pull away late.

Prediction: Cincinnati 27, Houston 20  

Stats courtesy of NFL.com and are accurate as of November 13. All advanced metrics courtesy of Pro Football Focus.