HOUSTON Bengals post first win in style, 38-3

Jon Kitna threw four touchdown passes in the victory over Houston.
HOUSTON (AP) -- After what they've been through this season, 1-7 sounds awfully good to the Cincinnati Bengals.
"It was a good effort; 1-and-7 feels a lot better than 0-and-8," said Bengals cornerback Artrell Hawkins, whose 102-yard interception return set the tone for Cincinnati's 38-3 victory over the Houston Texans on Sunday.
Jon Kitna threw four touchdown passes, and for one week at least, the Bengals didn't resemble the worst team in the NFL, dominating the expansion Texans (2-6) on both sides.
Cincinnati became the last team to post a victory this year, and did it in style: It was their largest margin of victory since Dec. 17, 1989, when coach Sam Wyche rubbed it in against Houston Oilers counterpart Jerry Glanville by calling a late timeout to kick a field goal that completed a 61-7 rout.
Pre-game prediction
This time the bad blood centered around the game-week proclamations of Bengals coach Dick LeBeau and receiver Chad Johnson, both of whom predicted a victory.
"I know Dick personally, and I know that he did what he had to do to get his team ready to play," Texans coach Dom Capers said. "Whatever he did, it worked."
LeBeau said afterward he made the prediction as a vote of confidence for the way his team had played recently, especially in a narrow loss to Tennessee last week. Johnson said he was just trying to motivate his teammates, and he apologized for causing any hard feelings.
"It feels good, but everyone misconstrued the guarantee thing," said Johnson, who caught a 10-yard TD pass from Kitna for the game's final score. "What I wanted to do was add some fuel to our fire, make a statement."
Big interception
Hawkins helped them make good on the pledge when he stepped in front of Houston receiver Corey Bradford 2 yards deep in the end zone, snared David Carr's pass and sprinted down the right sideline.
That made it 10-3, and it only got worse for the Texans.
"It started to snowball," tight end Billy Miller said. "That play wasn't a play that just won the game for them. We couldn't dig ourselves out of the hole."
Kitna, who said he hadn't had a four-touchdown game since his World League days, took it from there. He found Michael Westbrook for a 26-yard TD pass in the second quarter and threw 33 yards to Peter Warrick with 42 seconds left in the half for a 24-3 halftime lead.
Kitna settling in at QB
Kitna, who started his fourth straight game to provide some stability to the position, completed 13 of 15 passes in the first half.
"This difference was that Jon Kitna is settled in at quarterback," Bengals offensive tackle Willie Anderson said. "He played with more confidence today, and it showed."
Carr finished 18-for-32 for 199 yards. The rookie was sacked just twice after getting taken down a league-high 44 times during the first seven games.
"It's not like they came out and stopped us and shut us down," he said. "We were inside the 5-yard line twice. We just didn't get in the end zone."
The Texans were coming off their first road victory at Jacksonville and were favored by three points against the Bengals, who haven't had a winning season since 1990 and have the worst cumulative record of any NFL team over the past 12 years.