Youth – as the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw once famously said – is wasted on the young.

But in the case of the Cincinnati Bengals’ 19-13 loss to the Houston Texans in the AFC Wild Card game Saturday at Reliant Stadium, youth was wasted by the guys in charge of the young.

Certainly youthful mistakes helped derail the Bengals and extend their victory drought in the playoffs to 22 years – the longest active streak in the NFL and the ninth longest in league history – but the bigger problem was the offensive game plan that was concocted for a couple of the young players.

Rather than target A. J. Green, the second-year Pro Bowl receiver who is one of most dangerous threats in the NFL, the Bengals spent much of the first half trying to throw to tight end Jermaine Gresham. But of five balls thrown to him, he caught just one – for one yard. A couple of the incompletions bounced off his hands.

Meanwhile Green – who had 97 catches for 1,350 yards in the regular season – didn’t have a catch.

When Cincinnati finally did start throwing his way in the second half, Green ended up with five catches for 80 yards.

Quarterback Andy Dalton – another second-year Bengal – said the Texans’ defense wasn’t taking Green out of the equation early:

“They weren’t necessarily taking him away. We had it designed where we’d go to other guys. The way they play, we felt (Gresham) was a good match-up. He’s a big body and can create space. … And we had a couple of chances there, but we didn’t make the play.”

Green admitted he was frustrated with the way the first half played out: “I love getting the ball, but when they doubled me, other guys could make the plays.”

Coach Marvin Lewis said a couple of times when Green was the first-half target, Dalton got flushed out of the pocket and he “threw early (because) his eyes came away from him.”

With the offense sputtering, the Texans dominated every part of the game, except maybe the scoreboard.

Houston had the ball 38 minutes, 49 seconds compared to 21:11 by the Bengals. The Texans ran 77 plays to the Bengals 48. And while we’re on stats, here’s the most glaring difference. The Bengals were 0 for 9 on third down conversions, while Houston was 8 for 17.

“What makes this really disappointing,” said Green, “is that we felt we were playing one of our worst football games and yet we still had a chance to win it.”

Trailing by six with 2:57 left and the ball on the Houston 36, Green beat Texans cornerback Johnathan Joseph down the field, but Dalton over threw him by inches in the end zone.

“I was trying. I was digging,” Green said. “I laid out, but I just couldn’t get my hands on it. It was so close. We’re both young and we’ve got a lot of growing up to do together.”

On the next play – fourth and 11 – Dalton completed the pass to Marvin Jones, but the rookie receiver hadn’t run his route quite deep enough and was stopped three yards short of a first down.

“We showed our youth today a little bit,” said veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth. “When I say we’re young, we’re seriously young . We’ve got a lot of guys playing for their very first time in this environment.”

While coming up short again in the playoffs is a disappointment – this was Bengals third Wild Card loss in the past four years – the season was not a failure for the 10-7 team.

“We’ll keep knocking at the door and somehow we’ll find a way in,” Whitworth said. “The Texans are a perfect example. They got better and better in their division and last year they broke through (eliminating the Bengals 31-10). Now they are a dang good team. Now we’ve got a find a way to do the same.”

One way would be for the Bengals’ game planners not to waste their youth.