HOUSTON (AP) Ja’Marr Chase reminded everyone of just how good he can be on Sunday after the five-time Pro Bowler was a non-factor in Cincinnati’s season-opening win.<\/p>\n
Chase caught two touchdown passes from Joe Burrow to lead the Cincinnati Bengals to a 20-6 win over the Houston Texans.<\/p>\n
The big day by Chase came a week after he had just two receptions for 12 yards in a victory over Tampa Bay. That prompted Burrow, coach Zac Taylor and offensive coordinator Dan Pitcher to say that getting him the ball more had to be a priority against the Texans.<\/p>\n
They showed they meant that early as Chase eclipsed last week\u2019s performance with 14 yards receiving on Cincinnati\u2019s first drive and didn\u2019t slow down after that.<\/p>\n
Chase said he wasn’t concerned about his limited touches in Week 1 since the team got a win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got weapons on this team at the end of the day,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m gonna just hold myself accountable and try to do whatever I can to make the team win.\u201d<\/p>\n
He put the Bengals (2-0) on top 7-0 when he managed to drag his toe inbounds on a spectacular 32-yard TD catch over Derek Stingley with about 3 1\/2 minutes left in the first half.<\/p>\n
Burrow said the catch was one of the best he’s ever seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he was falling down,\u201d he said. \u201cI was about to argue for a pass interference and then somehow he stayed up and contorted his body and got two feet in. It was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase called it the second-best catch in his career behind a TD grab he had in the Super Bowl as a rookie.<\/p>\n
He also gave Burrow credit for his ball placement on the throw.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was still a little on top of me and I had to just give myself a position,\u201d Chase said. \u201cJoe threw a good enough ball to where the DB couldn\u2019t get to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bengals were up by seven when Burrow found Chase again. This time, he grabbed an 18-yard pass in the end zone in front of a diving Reed Blankenship to make it 17-3 with about three minutes left in the third.<\/p>\n
Taylor was impressed with how Chase handled the week and by his performance Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in enough games together to know that can happen in this offense sometimes, and what\u2019s important is the win, and Ja’Marr was a captain through the whole thing,” Taylor said. “I didn\u2019t hear one word out of him. He\u2019s positive. He\u2019s great, helping everybody else. He knew this stuff\u2019s going to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase had seven receptions for 75 yards and Burrow was 20 of 31 for 207 yards despite dealing with back tightness that caused him to miss practice time this week. Tee Higgins added five receptions for 95 yards.<\/p>\n
It was another disappointing game for the Texans, who are 0-2 after losing to Buffalo 36-31 in the opener. They\u2019ll need to get back on track next week to avoid starting 0-3 for a second year in a row.<\/p>\n
C.J. Stroud was 30 of 55 for 353 yards passing on a day the Texans had trouble running the ball. Their backs finished with just 18 yards rushing. They failed to score a touchdown while playing without star receiver Nico Collins after scoring 31 points last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one key to this victory was controlling the front and from an offensive perspective we did not control their front,\u201d Houston coach DeMeco Ryans said. \u201cWe got outplayed up front. We couldn\u2019t run the ball well and that forced us into a lot of passing situations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ka\u02bbimi Fairbairn\u2019s 45-yard field goal got the Texans within 17-6 near the end of the third.<\/p>\n
Evan McPherson\u2019s 57-yard field goal pushed the lead to 20-6 early in the fourth.<\/p>\n
The Texans were driving on the next possession when Stroud was flagged for intentional grounding to force a punt.<\/p>\n
A 37-yard field goal by Fairbairn cut the lead to 7-3 with just over a minute until halftime.<\/p>\n
McPherson\u2019s 51-yard field goal made it 10-3 early in the third.<\/p>\n
The Texans had some miscues in the first half that put them in bad spots. They fumbled the snap on a punt early in the second quarter and failed to convert on fourth-and-inches from the Cincinnati 18 when Dexter Lawrence stuffed David Montgomery on their next drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re playing the Houston Texans, it\u2019s not always going to be pretty,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cThat\u2019s a team that I respect a lot, how they\u2019re built, how they\u2019re coached. And we knew this was going to be a really difficult, challenging game, and to come out with a 20-6 win, I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bengals: Visit the Steelers next Sunday.<\/p>\n
Texans: Visit the Colts next Sunday.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here<\/p>\n
\n Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON (AP) Ja’Marr Chase reminded everyone of just how good he can be on Sunday after the five-time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":854966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-854965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/854966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}