Texans stun Bengals with last-second win

Al Behrman/AP Photo Houston Texans wide receiver Kevin Walter (bottom) falls into the end zone with a touchdown reception with Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Thomas Howard defending in the closing seconds of their game on Sunday in Cincinnati. Houston won 20-19.

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By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer Updated 10:17 AM Monday, December 12, 2011

CINCINNATI — By all rights he should have been the colorful hero of this game.

Linebacker Rey Maualuga — with that avalanche of long dark hair tumbling out the back of his Bengals helmet and those muscled arms covered in traditional Samoan warrior tattoos — had been a one-man wrecking ball for most of Sunday’s game.

With just under 11 minutes left in the first half, Houston had the ball first-and-goal at the Cincinnati 1-yard line and gave the handoff to running back Ben Tate for the short burst into the end zone.

Instead Maualuga stood him straight up, knocked the ball loose and then threw himself into the mass of groping, shoving, yelling, bullying humanity, all of whom were burrowing to corral that fumble.

“You ever been in a tug of war with all the (grunting)?” Maualuga asked. “I had the ball in my hands and I’m yelling I got it. Dudes were trying to take it, they’re struggling with me. I was really surprised no one went for my genital area. It was rough. After a minute you’re exhausted and we were down there at least two minutes”

Once the officials were able to pry all the 250- and 300-pounders apart, Maualuga popped up with the football in his extended right arm and trotted to the sidelines, where he then melted into a squat, trying to regain his breath.

Instead of an easy Texans’ score, Cincinnati took the ball the other way for a touchdown and a lead that eventually would be padded to 16-3 at the half.

Late in the game it was more highlight-reel play from Maualuga.

Houston was still down nine when Texans rookie quarterback T.J. Yates completed a pass in the flat to Arian Foster. Instantly, Maualuga hit him, knocked the ball loose and a Bengal teammate — 300-pound tackle Geno Atkins — picked the ball up and started to run toward the nearby Houston end zone for the put-the-game-out-of-reach score.

At that moment all seemed right in Bengaldom.

This was the game coach Marvin Lewis had called the most import of his nine years in Cincinnati. A victory would stop the team’s recent three-losses-in-four-games slide and keep it in control of a wild-card berth to the playoffs.

More importantly it would be further affirmation of good days ahead for a long downtrodden franchise that suddenly has found itself stocked with glorious young talent on both sides of the ball.

But then as has so often been the case for this star-crossed club, dreams of new beginnings gave way to the realities that come with a time-worn cliché:

They win the battles here, but they lose the war.

Maualuga won his skirmishes in dramatic fashion, but the Bengals’ collapse was even more jarring.

In the end, Houston — using their third-string quarterback and without their injured All-Pro receiver Andre Johnson — would win 20-19 thanks to a pair of ex-Bengals who put the finishing touches on an improbable 80-yard scoring drive with just 0:02 left.

Here’s how it happened:

Remember Atkins, who had picked up the fumble and was running to Bengal glory?

Well, a few strides later, a Texan came up behind him and knocked out the ball, which went bounding along the Paul Brown Stadium turf toward the end zone.

“I think I have a little blame for that play,” Maualuga said. “I could have jumped on the ball, but I thought Geno had it, so I’d turned and was celebrating with the crowd.”

Once Atkins and the ball were separated, two other Bengals — safety Reggie Nelson and linebacker Manny Lawson — did pounce on it.

“It just so happens we both got our hands on it at the same time,” Lawson said. “We had our heads down so we didn’t know who was in there, but one of us was pulling one way and the other was pulling the other way and it squirted away.”

The ball rolled all the way to the 2-yard line, where Houston tackle Eric Winston flopped on it. Six minutes and some 83 yards later Texans kicker Neil Rackers, once a Bengal, booted a 33-yard field goal.

Cincinnati then stumbled through its possession and was forced to punt, setting up the last drive that Yates — making just his second NFL start — orchestrated with just 2:33 remaining and no timeouts left.

With 44 seconds remaining, he converted a third-and-15 situation with a lumbering 17-yard scramble. Three plays later on another third down, he was helped by a pass interference call on Adam “Pacman” Jones, a call the Bengal cornerback later disputed.

“I didn’t grab (Jacoby Jones) — what I did was touch him,” Jones said. “With just eight seconds left, yeah I think that’s a touchy call to make. It wasn’t a hold.”

Two plays later Yates completed a 6-yard TD pass to Kevin Walter, another jettisoned Bengal. That tied the game 19-19 and Rackers won it with his point-after kick.

“Everything good that happened today, it’s all forgotten,” a dejected Maualuga said. “The good catches A.J. (Green) made, Ced’s (Benson) runs, Andy (Dalton) scrambling in the backfield to make first downs, all the sacks we made ... all that kind of goes away when you lose.”

So, it was suggested, at the end of the day, the Bengals had lost the only tug of war that mattered.

Maualuga thought about that a second, then shrugged.

“As a metaphor, yeah, you could put it that way,” he said quietly. “We did let this one get pulled away from us.”

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