By Ray Porter Jr.
HOUSTON, TX–It was said all week that the Pittsburgh Steelers would all but be guaranteed to beat the upstart Houston Texans and that LBs TJ Watt and Alex Highsmith would set sack records against rookie QB CJ Stroud. And never mind that head coach Mike Tomlin was 23-4 against rookie QBs.
Unfortunately, it’s 23-5 now as all the pregame hype meant nothing as the Steelers fell to the Texans 30-6 in front of an NRG Stadium crowd of 71,399, which were mostly Steelers fans.
“You know, not a good day at the office for us,” remarked Tomlin. “From an agenda standpoint, we didn’t do a lot of the things that we desired to do. We didn’t stop a lot of the things that we thought that they desired to do, and thus the outcome.”
In a game in which they were expected to win, the Steelers had more punt yards (238) than total yards (225). They had only 12 first downs and most critically, failed to sack Stroud or score a touchdown. Meanwhile, the Texans scored 3 TDs, kicked 3 FGs, and had 451 total yards, and 24 first downs.
“I’ll be specific. They ran the ball with consistency on us—throughout,” said Tomlin. “We deferred in an effort to get ourselves off to a fast start potentially. I thought they did a nice job of establishing tempo and they ran the ball on us, man. We’ve got to be better versus the run. We’re not going to get what we desire to get defensively until we settle the run down. We didn’t do that today. They were in manageable possession downs. You don’t get them one-dimensional, you don’t get an opportunity for splash – the splash that we thrive on – and so you know, it’s moot points, man, until we get better at stopping the run, making the power fall the correct direction. It’s not dramatic, but it’s just the direction where the power was falling.”
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good game for QB Kenny Pickett as he passed for only 114 yards (15/23) before leaving the game late in the 3rd quarter due to injuring his knee after getting sacked on a 4th-and-1. Their best receiver was RB Jaylen Warren who caught 6 passes, and fellow RB Najee Harris had 32 yards.
“You know, I just thought we didn’t operate efficiently enough. Penalties and so forth, negativity. It took us too long to get the run game going. That’s kind of a synopsis of it,” said Tomlin.
Harris did have a rejuvenation on the ground as he finished with 71 yards, but the Steelers abandoned their running game when they were in Texans territory, and it proved costly.
Speaking on his evaluation of QB Kenny Pickett’s performance prior to his injury, Tomlin said, “You know, we all got to do better. I don’t know that I look at it in that way as I sit here today. I’m looking at us in totality, in terms of what we need to do to win. I would probably be better positioned to answer that later in the week, next time we get together.”
Meanwhile, Stroud and the Texans had a field day against the Steelers’ defense. The young QB finished with 306 yards (15/30) with 2 TDs, which were caught by WR Nico Collins (7 catches, 168 yards) RB Devin Singletary also threw a TD pass to WR Dalton Shultz (3 rec, 42 yards). RB Dameon Pierce led with 81 yards. K Ka’imi Fairbairn also added 3 FGs for the Texans (2-2)
“That’s a fundamentalist group,” Tomlin commented. “They do a really good job of minimizing splash and making you operate and making you be efficient and to be quite honest, we weren’t efficient enough. We didn’t minimize enough negativity. We didn’t stay on schedule enough, so drives get stalled, or you settle for field goals, and it’s the perfect storm for us offensively and defensively from that perspective. They established the run and played behind it on their offense.”
The Texans defense sacked Pickett 3 times (led by 2 from DE Jonathan Greenard) and intercepted him once (by former Steeler CB Steven Nelson)
“They created inefficient things, and we didn’t work efficiently on the other side of the ball, and thus the outcome,” said Tomlin. “So, we have a lot of work to do, obviously, but I congratulate the Houston Texans. They played a really good football game. They played to their personality.”
The Steelers (2-2) must learn from this, regroup, and prepare for an AFC North matchup vs. the 3-1 Baltimore Ravens as they visit Acrisure Stadium next Sunday. While most of Steeler Nation is hoping that the team moves on from Offensive Coordinator Matt Canada, Tomlin didn’t allude to that, but he says changes are inevitable.
“…We have to make some changes, man. That was – that was an ugly product we put out there today. So, we’re not going to do the same things and hope for a different outcome. What those changes are, man, we’ll put together a plan in preparation this week.”
Notes: Tomlin addressed the injuries: “Dan Morris has a knee [injury], needs to be evaluated. Pat Freiermuth’s got a hamstring. Kenny [Pickett] same thing – he’s got a knee that needs to be evaluated. And [DeMarvin] Leal. I don’t know what the next status of Leal is. He’s being evaluated as we speak. So, those are the four guys that went down in the game that did not come back. I don’t have a lot of information as I stand here right now specifically about what those injuries are.”
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