Countdown To Thursday Night Football: Texans - Bengals

In, ohhhh, roughly four hours, the Texans and Bengals will meet to try and stave off 0-2.

In one corner, there is Houston, an absolute mess right now. Brian Cushing is suspended for ten games, Tom Savage gave his agent the okay to say that he is upset about the way the first half was handled, Duane Brown is still gone, the team is without its starting tight end, and a rookie quarterback is making his first start behind a scrambled offensive line on a bad ankle because he gives the team the best option to win tonight.

In the other corner are the Bengals, who have a quarterback that has trouble against pressure, a bad offensive line, were shutout by the Ravens last week 0-20 thanks to three red zone turnovers, and is generally a shadow of the team that was an actual Super Bowl contender before blowing it back in 2015.

The thing is, Shelly, is that as soon as that brown oblong ball goes way up in the air, none of that matters. Both teams will be standing on the precipice of the past and future as they play a game that nationally everyone will hate, except in Houston, where we will forever cherish it, like all games in this great rivalry.

Hang out here until the first quarter thread posts at 7:15 p.m. CDT, and then head on over to there to talk about what you’re seeing.

Enjoy the wait until game time.