Houston’s 13-9 win over Cincinnati wasn’t exciting, but it was historic. Rarely do you see such little offensive production from two teams.
The Texans, recall, won a 10-6 yawner at Cincinnati two years ago. And they hung on for a 12-10 win in Houston last December when Randy Bullock missed a field goal at the end.
So that’s three straight wins in three years for Houston in this series, despite scoring fewer than 14 points in every game. That’s a first for a team in the Super Bowl era.
On two other occasions, teams have won three straight, but not in consecutive years. Indianapolis beat the Browns 9-6, 13-6 and 10-6 in the 2003, 2005 and 2008 seasons. And the Vikings pulled it off against the Colts (10-3, 13-10 and 12-3) but with an 11-year gap between 1971 and 1982, and then the Colts in a different city in 1988. (The scheduling formula used to be different, and the Vikings and Colts didn’t play at all in the 1972-1981 seasons.)
On seven other occasions teams have played three games in a row with neither team scoring 14 points, but in those cases, both teams won at least one game.
Cincinnati’s next game is at Green Bay, so it’s looking at an 0-3 start.
On the fantasy front, D’Onta Foreman looks legit. Going forward, I expect it will be more of a one-two punch in Houston, with him sharing the job with Lamar Miller. That would be my No. 1 takeaway from the evening.
—Ian Allan