Updated: 2:50 p.m.
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis and middle linebacker Rey Maualuga both made their points at Tuesday's meeting when Lewis asked the players with playoff experience to stand up.
About half of them stood, proving Lewis's point that the Bnegals have plenty of guys that know what it's like. But Maualuga didn't stand even though he started 15 games as a rookie at SAM linebacker. He broke his leg in the next-to-last game and missed the Wild Card loss to the Jets.
He didn't stand, he said, because he didn't feel like he had experienced the playoffs while sidelined.
YATES GETS GO: Texans head coach Gary Kubiak, with his top two quarterbacks already shelved for the year, said he expected rookie quarterback T.J. Yates to practice Tuesday with his non-separated throwing shoulder suffered Sunday against Tennessee and start Saturday's Wild Card Game (4:30 p.m.-Cincinnati's Channel 5) in Houston.
"He could have come back in the game, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me with what we've through as team," Kubiak said Tuesday in his conference call with the Cincinnati media. "Plus, Jake (Delhomme) needed to get some work. He was feeling much better (Monday)."
Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson, the multiple Pro Bowler that has been hampered by hamstring problems all season, can play about 40 to 50 snaps but Kubiak said he couldn't go a full game if it went 60 or 70 plays.
Kubiak also said tight end Owen Daniels is getting his knee drained after not playing against the Titans, but no one is thinking he'll miss this one. He had a game-high 100 yards on seven catches in Houston's 20-19 victory over the Bengals three and a half weeks ago at Paul Brown Stadium to go along with the seven catches for 78 yards and two touchdowns in the Texans 28-17 win at PBS in 2009.
Kubiak is still breathing a sigh of relief from that Dec. 11 victory in which Yates erased a nine-point deficit in the final six minutes and won the game with a six-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Kevin Walter with two seconds left.
"We were very, very lucky," Kubiak said. "We know we won't get away with that type of effort this weekend."
The Texans committed four turnovers, trailed 16-3 at half, and running back Arian Foster lost a fumble at his 19 with 11:50 left in the game before Bengals defensive tackle Geno Atkins had his recovery stripped by center Chris Myers that allowed the Texans to jump on it at the 2 and start their comeback.
"We were dead in the water," Kubiak said. "We got a lot of breaks. Probably the biggest break in the game was when Arian fumbled and Chris Myers hustled back there and made a tackle and we got the ball back on the (2) and if not the game's over. We made our share of mistakes, but (the Bengals) caused them. They played extremely well that day. They caused us to turn the ball over. They ran the ball on us. We have lot of respect for (them). We know we have to play a hell of a lot better than we did that day if we're going to survive."
Kubiak sounded surprised to hear that the game marks the first time in history two rookie quarterbacks have faced each other in the NFL playoffs. But he says he won't get overly conservative with Yates.
"We've got to be aggressive," Kubiak said. "We have to believe in our players and what we do and go out there and cut it loose and play the game. I've got to trust my guys that I've got out there. There are obviously things we have to do to be successful. But at the same time we have to go out there and believe in what we're doing and be aggressive as a football team. If not, you're probably not going to like the result."
SLANTS AND SCREENS
» Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis has a short practice planned Tuesday afternoon and it's a good thing because it was a brisk 22 degrees in the late morning, expected to get to 27 in the afternoon…The forecast calls for 41 degrees Wednesday.
» The Bengals signed cornerback Rico Murray to his thies stint on the practice squad Tuesday. Murray, a product of Cincinnati's Moeller High School and a free agent out of Kent State, played in eight games the previous two seasons and played in this year's opener before he was released the following week. Murray said he'll be on the club's off-season roster.
