Cincinnati is trying to prove last year's collapse was a fluke. Houston is trying to prove last year's playoff meltdown wasn't who they really are.
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SUN SEP 20 · 12:00 PM CT
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Bengals
Texans
C.J. Stroud's last snap of the 2025 season was an interception returned for a touchdown, one of 4 picks he threw in a 28-16 divisional-round loss at New England that ended Houston's season in the snow. That collapse pushed the Texans to gut their offensive line this offseason, bringing in Braden Smith and Wyatt Teller after finishing dead last in run-block win rate and 30th in pass protection a year ago. Kickoff at NRG Stadium is set for 12:00 PM CT, an early-window measuring stick for a Texans team that says it's fixed the problem up front.
Cincinnati's issue last year wasn't scheme, it was health. Joe Burrow went down with a turf toe injury in Week 2 and didn't return until late November, and the Bengals went 1-8 without him on the way to a 6-11 finish and a third straight missed playoffs. When Burrow actually played, the offense looked like the Bengals offense — blowout wins over Baltimore's, uh, no, over Miami (45-21) and Arizona (37-14) down the stretch. The bigger offseason swing was on defense, where Cincinnati traded for Dexter Lawrence to try to fix a unit that graded as one of the worst in NFL history for stretches of 2025.
Both sides enter with real questions nobody can answer until the pads are on in real games. Houston's backfield is a genuine timeshare between Woody Marks and free-agent addition David Montgomery, and the new-look offensive line has multiple jobs still up for grabs at guard and center. Cincinnati, meanwhile, is leaning on Dan Pitcher's plan to get Burrow under center more often after years of shotgun-heavy football — a wrinkle that sounds good in June but hasn't been tested against a real opponent yet.
Cincinnati Bengals
Houston Texans
The recent-form gap is stark on paper. Houston closed last season 4-1, including that 30-6 wild-card beatdown of Pittsburgh, before the Patriots ended things. Cincinnati's last five swung from a 0-24 shutout embarrassment against Baltimore to consecutive blowout wins before a January loss to Cleveland. That volatility is basically the story of the Bengals' whole season — dominant with Burrow, lost without him.
Neither team is walking in clean on the injury front, even if most of it is offseason-report noise rather than Week 1 absences.
Cincinnati Bengals
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries to report
Houston Texans
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Fully healthy — no injuries to report
This one reads less like a coin flip and more like a team that fixed its glaring weakness (Houston's line) against a team still hoping its fix holds (Cincinnati's defense). Burrow healthy for a full season changes everything for Cincinnati's ceiling, but Houston enters with the deeper, more battle-tested roster after an AFC South title and a trip to the divisional round.
