Ground Beef: Steelers Lose

 10

 17

Houston wins the toss and elects to receive.

The Texans come out playing Pittsburgh Steelers football, running behind a zone blocking scheme that gives Foster big holes to cut back through. The running game sets up the play-action game and Schaub is able to hook up with TE Owen Daniels a few times for some big gains, including an 18-yarder on 3rd and 10. The Steelers have no answer for the running game, and the Texans are able to take it all the way down to the 1 where they go play-action and Schaub hits a wide open Daniels for the score.

0-7

After an 11-minute drive by the Texans, the Steelers offense finally gets a shot. 007 gets things rolling with passes to Wallace and Sanders to get across midfield. On 3rd and 10, Ben gets sacked and loses the ball, but an illegal contact penalty in the secondary nullifies the play. The offense can't get back on track and Ben is sacked on 3rd down. Sepulveda pins Houston inside the 10.

Second Quarter

The Texans come back out grinding away on the ground. Andre Johnson makes his first appearance of the game, catching a few short passes, one on a 3rd and short to move the sticks.

In a scary moment, Johnson catches a ball in the flat and goes down without being touched, grabbing his knee.

Even though we're playing against them, you hate to see a player of that caliber go down like that. The Texans are able to grind it out on the ground and get down inside the 10, but the Steelers defense is able to hold them to three.

0-10

Ben comes out trying to hit Heath, who tips the ball up in the air, it bounces off a few Texans then falls back into Heath's hands as he is laying on the ground. Wow did we dodge a bullet there. After the two minute warning, Ben goes up top for Wallace on 3rd down and finds him in single coverage on a safety for a big 40-yard gain. Ben goes back to Wallace for a few then hits Heath for another first down. Moore takes a draw play inside the 10, but a late hit by Pouncey sends us back. Ben can't hook up with Brown on two attempts then Wallace comes up just short of the sticks. David Johnson doesn't block anyone on the corner and Daniel Manning blocks Suisham's kick.

However, Manning pulls a Plaxico as the Texans are returning the block for a touchdown and blocks Sepulveda in the back waaay behind the play, which nullifies the touchdown.

Halftime

Houston shooting themselves in the foot with penalties in the first half. We're lucky to only be down by 10.

Third Quarter

The Steelers start moving the ball, but Ben gets sacked on 2nd down when he tries to roll out of the pocket. 007 makes a big-time play on 3rd and 15 stepping up into the pocket and gunning one to Hines down the middle to move the chains. After a false start penalty, Brown makes two nice catches on a slant and a curl to move the sticks. 007 keeps rolling, hitting AB again with a back shoulder throw on the sideline to get us down to the 15. Rashard gets two carries, then Ben rolls out on 3rd down and makes a move around JJ Watt and takes off upfield, diving forward for a first down inside the 5. The Steelers pull out the old Student Body Right toss play and Raise Some waltzes in untouched.

RAAAAAAIIIISSSSSEEEE SOOOOOOME MEEEENDEN-HELLLLLL

7-10

With Johnson out of the game, the Steelers are able to stack the box against Foster and force a 3-and-out. 

The Steelers come out pounding the rock with Redman who hits the hole hard for a big 15-yard gain then comes back with a 6-yarder over the right side. I love the way Redman runs. He hits the hole hard and always keeps his legs moving. Ike keeps grinding and converts a 3rd and 2 with another strong run. The Steelers keep it on the ground and gash Houston up the middle with Moore. AB takes an end-around and looks like he is going to throw but opts not to and tiptoes down the sideline down to the 15. Moore takes a handoff and looks like he is going to throw, but takes it around the corner to set up 3rd and 2. Redman can't pick it up.

Fourth Quarter

Suisham nails it to tie the game.

10-10

The Steelers bottle up Foster to force a 3rd and long, but Schaub hits Daniels across the middle to move the sticks. It looked like the ball hit the ground, but Tomlin doesn't challenge. Schaub goes play-action to Daniels again, then Arian Foster cuts one back and blows past Woodley and Troy on the corner and takes it all the way to the house to give Houston the lead.

That 42-yard TD run was the longest against us in the Mike Tomlin era.

10-17

Redman gets 8 on first down, but Ben gets sacked on 2nd down when he tries to go play-action. Hines get's crushed across the middle and can't hold on to the pass on 3rd down. 

Troy comes out like his hair is on fire and just blows up 3 plays. On a 3rd down screen to Foster, he tries to jump over Foster and rip the ball out of Foster's hand.

Wow.

007 hits Brown on another back-shoulder throw on the sidelines.

A sack and false start set us back into 3rd and 21 and Ben gets sacked again by Mario Williams. Sepulveda crushes a punt out of his end zone. 

The Steelers force another 3rd and 6, and Schaub takes a shot downfield but Keenan Lewis runs great coverage and knocks the ball away.

Brown makes some moves and brings the punt back across midfield. 

Ben scrambles out of pressure for a few yards to set up 3rd and 7 then makes a bad throw that almost gets picked off. With 2 and a half minutes left, the Steelers have to go for it, and Ben's pass gets tipped at the line. 

The Steelers burn their final timeout on first down, then another run takes the clock down to two minutes. Foster runs again and we stop him short, forcing a punt. Houston pins us down inside the 1.

The Steelers take over with 1:02 left. Ben throws a pick-6 right to former Bengal Jonathan Joseph, but a roughing the passer call gets us out of trouble and nullifies the interception.

Ben's right leg got rolled up on. He was limping noticeably after that.

Ben rolls away from pressure and hits AB who gets out of bounds. Ben gets swarmed on the next play but dumps it off to Redman who makes a great effort to get out across the 40. Ben spikes it with 20 seconds left. Ben tries to go up top for AB, but the pass gets picked off.

Game.

Yep, that look just sums it all up.

Players of the Game

Offensive Game Ball: Isaac Redman

Defensive Game Ball: Daniel Sepulveda

Honorable Mentions:

Mike Wallace
Antonio Brown

Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game

Steelers Football

One team on the field today played Steelers football. They ran the ball well, threw to the tight end, and controlled the clock. On the other side, they blitzed the quarterback, forced turnovers, and made big plays. The problem is, that team was wearing blue and red, not black and gold.

Final Thoughts

• Not much to say here. We didn't get it done on either side of the ball. The game was tied with 15 minutes to play and Houston made the plays to win. 
• Ben looked for AB a LOT today. Seemed to be targeting him pretty much exclusively down the stretch.
• We have to be able to stop the run. If we can't stop the run, nothing else really matters. Another big test this week against Chris Johnson. 
• 2-2 isn't the end of the world, but we have to get better in the trenches. We're not getting a push from the D-line and our offensive line is like swiss cheese.