CINCINNATI -- Andre Smith had just gone to the ground, resting on his knees as trainers rushed out to check his left arm.

As soon as he saw the starting right tackle felled by the injury, Marshall Newhouse pulled on his helmet and jogged into the Cincinnati Bengals' huddle, preparing for his biggest challenge of the season.

When Newhouse finally dipped low into his stance on the right edge, standing opposite him was J.J. Watt, the Houston Texans' revered defensive end whose resume of SportsCenter Top 10 moments is exhaustive. Routinely, Watt had abused the linemen facing him with a series of bull rushes and ball swats. In fact, on the very play Smith had been injured, Watt disengaged from the lineman before jumping and knocking down his only pass of the game.

It was a typical Watt play.

But once Newhouse started building his snap count Sunday at NRG Stadium in Houston, Watt wasn't recording very many of his hallmark deflections and stops.

"I don't think I blocked him perfectly, but I did pretty well," said Newhouse, who, according to Pro Football Focus, played 73 of the Bengals' 83 offensive snaps in place of Smith. "There's some things I can correct. I can try to stay patient and try to stay within myself. That's the best I could do given that situation.

"Definitely feel like I could block him better than I did, but we still won and he didn't make that many impact plays."

Watt, who entered with 9.5 sacks, had none Sunday. He also had no other pass deflections after the tip over Smith, and generally found getting into the Bengals' backfield difficult. Only once did he seem to truly bug Newhouse, and that was when one of his fingers accidentally slipped into Newhouse's facemask, poking him in the right eye.

Newhouse's performance impressed his teammates.

"He put on a hell of a performance dealing with probably the MVP of the league," said right guard Kevin Zeitler, who played next to Newhouse. "All the credit in the world to him for what he did."

Newhouse said his eye should heal OK. He is expected to see an ophthalmologist Monday.

Smith also is expected to get evaluated Monday, undergoing an MRI the team hopes will come back with a favorable result. FOX Sports' Mike Garafolo reported during the game that Smith had a "significant tear to his triceps." After the game, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis called it a biceps injury. A Bengals source also said the team wasn't yet sure of the severity of the injury, but would have a better idea about it following Monday's MRI.

After his own injury scare, Newhouse only missed one offensive play. Fueled by adrenaline, he somehow battled through blurred vision.

"For a while, it was in and out and blurry," Newhouse said. "I was probably at like 70 percent vision."

Newhouse had other motivations for making it through the game. He was playing in front of an aunt who lived in Houston, and a Naval officer friend who was watching him play for the first time in the NFL, on a day when the Texans were honoring service members. When he realized he had to block against Watt, Newhouse took a simple approach.

"I wasn't going to break down and cower or anything," Newhouse said. "He's a football player and he's a good one. But if you do what you're taught and how you're taught, play hard and finish plays, then things will work out."