Tee Higgins — Week 2: Five Catches, Five First Downs
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Higgins led the Bengals with 10 targets and 95 yards on 5 catches, every one a first down, and converted three third downs: 18 yards on third and eight and 23 on third and four on the drive to Cincinnati's first touchdown, and 23 deep right on third and five in the fourth. The 23-yarder in the second quarter was the largest win-probability gain of any play in a 20–6 win over the Texans.
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Nothing to nothing, four 21 left in the second quarter, third and four at the Cincinnati 45. Joe Burrow threw short middle to Tee Higgins, who took it 23 yards to the Houston 32. +2.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 10.3 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. No play by either team moved win probability more. On the next snap Burrow hit Ja'Marr Chase for the 32-yard touchdown. Three plays before the 23, on third and eight at the Cincinnati 21, Higgins had caught another one over the short middle for 18, +2.4 expected points and 6.4 points of win probability. Two third downs, two conversions, 41 yards, and the Bengals had their first points.
The line: 10 targets, five catches, 95 yards, no touchdown, five first downs, +5.5 expected points on his targets, the most of any Bengal. 93 air yards, 33 after the catch. The catches: 21 on second and three from the Cincinnati 23 early in the second quarter; the 18; the 23; 10 on second and 10 with a minute oh seven left in the half; and 23 deep right on third and five from the Cincinnati 33, with 14 18 left in the fourth quarter, pushed out at the Houston 44, +2.6 expected points. That drive ended in a 57-yard field goal and a 20 to six lead. Five third-down targets, three caught, three converted. The two that missed were both third and five in the fourth quarter, one before that field goal and one before a punt. Every target came in two quarters: seven in the second, three in the fourth, none in the first or third.
10 targets led the team, one more than Chase's nine, and the two of them took 19 of Burrow's 31 throws. 95 yards led the Bengals and trailed only Dalton Schultz in the game.
Back in June the preview's question about Higgins was what is left when you strip the touchdowns, because 11 scores on 59 catches had carried last season's finish and touchdown rate is the least repeatable thing a receiver owns. Week 1 was three catches for 59 yards, with a 33-yarder reversed on a challenge. Through two games the touchdowns are stripped for real — he has none — and what is left is 16 targets and a hundred 54 yards, with third down as his territory on Sunday. That is more volume than the preview assumed. Two games do not settle a target share. Cincinnati is at the Steelers on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
When Tee Higgins's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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