HOUSTON -- As they welcome running back Giovani Bernard back to the fold, the Cincinnati Bengals will be down two receivers on Sunday against the Houston Texans.
Dane Sanzenbacher and Greg Little were healthy scratches before the game at NRG Stadium, joining the likes of injured defenders Vontaze Burfict and Margus Hunt. On Friday, coach Marvin Lewis said Burfict was "progressing" from arthroscopic knee injury he had three weeks ago. After he went through some conditioning and rehab exercises on the side of Bengals practices earlier in the week, Burfict seemed to show signs of possibly returning next week at Tampa Bay.
Hunt hurt his right ankle at the end of the first quarter in New Orleans last week. He spent part of the week on crutches and wearing a walking boot.
This is the first time this season the Bengals will be without two receivers, but Little and Sanzenbacher have alternated inactive status in each of the last three weeks. Sanzenbacher didn't suit up for the Jacksonville and Cleveland games earlier this month, and Little wasn't part of last week's game against the Saints.
This means A.J. Green, Mohamed Sanu, Brandon Tate and James Wright will get playing time at receiver. The Bengals also are hopeful to integrate tight ends Jermaine Gresham, Kevin Brock and Ryan Hewitt into the passing game. Bernard also could get into the slot or become flanked out at receiver at times, too, as he returns for the first time in three weeks. Bernard had been a key receiving asset for the Bengals before multiple injuries sidelined him. Through seven games, he has 22 catches for 179 yards.
Cincinnati's only lineup change due to the inactives concerns linebacker Vincent Rey, who will play in place of Burfict once again.
On the Houston side, keep an eye on running back Alfred Blue, who is expected to take over for Arian Foster (groin) who also was declared inactive for Sunday's game. Foster came out before warm-ups and ran sprints across the width of the field as he tried to work through the injury. It doesn't appear he got the results he had been hoping for.
Here is the full list of inactives from Houston:
Bengals inactives
WR Dane Sanzenbacher
RB Rex Burkhead
CB Chris Lewis-Harris
LB Vontaze Burfict
WR Greg Little
DE Margus Hunt
Texans inactives
QB Tom Savage
WR DeVier Posey
RB Arian Foster
LB Max Bullough
OT Jeff Adams