Bengals vs Texans: Why Arian Foster, Ben Tate Must Come Up Huge for Houston

The Cincinnati Bengals and Houston Texans meet on Saturday in the Wild Card round of the AFC playoffs, marking the first time two rookie quarterbacks have played for opposing teams in the postseason.

While Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton has been the starter for his team for the duration of the 2011 regular season, the Texans' T.J. Yates has been thrust into the starting role after both Matt Schaub and Matt Leinart suffered season-ending injuries in the second half of the season.

Yates has performed well for being forced into such a high-pressure situation seemingly out of the blue, but he's going to need a bit of help if the Texans are going to defeat the Bengals and advance in the playoffs this week.

That's where Texans running backs Arian Foster and Ben Tate come in.

Foster has been invaluable to his team this season, coming off of an early-season hamstring injury to end the regular season with the third-most yards from scrimmage of any player in the league, with 1,841. Tate himself is 42nd in the league, with 1,040, which is impressive for a backup.

On average, Tate and Foster are combining for 210.9 yards per game and have 16 touchdowns between them this season.

They're the backbone of the Texans offense, more than any of the three quarterbacks that have started for the team this season, and more than even wideout Andre Johnson, who has been struggling with hamstring issues all year long that have kept him performing at less than 100 percent.

If the Texans have any hope to defeat the Bengals, Tate and Foster will have to be heavily involved in that effort.

It won't be easy. The first time these two teams met, Foster rushed 15 times for just 41 yards and caught four passes for 33; Tate carried the ball eight times for 67 yards and had three receptions for 30 yards.

Though the Texans won that game by a single point, thanks to recovering a few choice fumbles, errors on the Bengals' and officials' parts and a successful late-game drive, the fact that Foster and Tate were so dominated by the Cincinnati defense should have the team concerned about its chances on Saturday.

No matter the quarterback, the Texans run an extremely conservative offense. It's been successful, for the most part, because the dangerous receiver Johnson effectively augments the ground game.

Without Johnson healthy, the Houston offense becomes predictable and one-dimensional. When that's the case, it's no big secret that they key to holding the team down is by stopping Tate and Foster, forcing Yates to throw more often than he should, and capitalizing on any mistakes that follow.

The Texans will need to press on with Tate and Foster running the ball and catching short-to-intermediate passes, even if the strategy isn't met with much success early in the game.

They are both high-impact players who have performed impressively for their team in the regular season and helped put them in the position they're in now, as AFC South champions hosting a playoff game for the first time in franchise history.

Without major contributions from both players, the Texans have little chance to defeat the Bengals and advance to the divisional round of the playoffs. Whatever it takes, they must commit to getting the ball to Foster and Tate and put forth a concerted effort that their carries and catches yield major gains.