Labriola On

Labriola on the loss to the Texans

Oct 01, 2023 at 11:27 PM

Bob Labriola

Steelers.com

Evidently, the light at the end of the tunnel the Steelers were seeing following last Sunday's win over the Raiders turned out to be an oncoming train. Call it, the Houston Texans Express.

The Steelers arrived at NRG Stadium on Sunday with a two-game winning streak and the appearance of being a team on the rise after showing incremental improvement in every phase of their performance over the course of the two weeks following a loss to San Francisco in the regular season opener on Sept. 10.

But any and all of that feel-good was extinguished by a Texans team that ran the football effectively and protected their rookie quarterback behind an offensive line that had to be pieced together because of injuries, and then used their defense to do the kinds of things the Steelers expected to do with their own defense but could not. Add it all up and what resulted was a 30-6 defeat that was as complete as the score indicated.

Leading up to kickoff, the seemingly insurmountable advantage the Steelers owned came in the matchup pitting their ability to create pressure with their defensive front – primarily from T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith – vs. a Houston offensive line crippled by injuries to significant players. Starting left tackle Laremy Tunsil was out; Josh Jones, the starting left guard and the primary backup at both tackle spots, was out. The starting center, Jarrett Patterson, was going to be a rookie sixth-round pick, because two other centers (Scott Quessenberry and Juice Scruggs) were on the injured reserve list, as was tackle Tytus Howard, who had started 46 games for the Texans over the previous three seasons.

And so when the Steelers won the coin toss, it made perfect sense when they elected to defer, because that would put Houston's apparent weakness on the field in front of rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud vs. a defensive front that arrived ranked third in the NFL in sacks per pass attempt through the first three weeks of the season.

While that seemed like a solid plan, it failed miserably, because during a game-opening 69-yard drive for a touchdown the Texans rushed for 41 of those yards and faced only one third down among the 12 plays they needed to travel the distance to take a 7-0 lead.

"From an agenda standpoint, we didn't do a lot of the things that we desired to do," said Coach Mike Tomlin. "We didn't stop a lot of the things that we thought that they desired to do – and thus the outcome. We deferred in an effort to get ourselves off to a fast start potentially, and I thought they did a nice job of establishing tempo and they ran the ball on us. We've got to be better vs. the run."

And the offense has got to be better, period, in any and every category.

On the Steelers opening offensive possession of the game, which followed that first Texans touchdown, Kenny Pickett converted the first two third-down situations with his legs – the first on a scramble and the second on a sneak. But what followed was an 8-yard loss on a sack of Pickett in which defensive end Jerry Hughes came in untouched and then a pass deep down the middle for Calvin Austin III that might have been a touch underthrown and consequently was intercepted by former Steelers cornerback Steven Nelson.

Houston took advantage of the takeaway with a 9-play, 29-yard drive for a field goal and a 10-0 lead, and in keeping with the frustrating theme of the afternoon, 22 of those 29 yards came via the run.

Then from that point until the end of a first half where the Texans added two more field goals to increase their lead to 16-0, the Steelers offense punted four straight times, and included in that were their 13th and 14th three-and-outs of the young season. The offense's longest gain of the half was 9 yards, and it did not run a single play in Houston territory.

"There is nothing going on with that Pittsburgh offense right now," said CBS analyst and former Steelers Coach Bill Cowher at halftime of the broadcast. "I'll tell you, Pittsburgh's in trouble."

Cowher is a Hall of Fame coach, and besides those credentials it was impossible to dispute his analysis had you watched what was unfolding during the first half. The offense has been unable to do anything consistently right to this point in the season, with the most frustrating aspect being the failure to build on or even sustain various spurts of productivity from one week to the next.

Take the top three receiving threats. In Las Vegas, George Pickens averaged 18.8 yards a catch, and Calvin Austin III (72-yards) and Pat Freiermuth (13 yards) both caught touchdown passes. The following week vs. a Texans secondary that wasn't appreciably better, Pickens and Austin were targeted a combined 12 times and finished with an 8.1 average on the 6 passes they caught, and Freiermuth caught 3 passes for 7 yards and left the game with an injured hamstring.

"We had these spurts where we look good, and we're not doing it soon enough in games," said center Mason Cole. "We're not functioning efficiently. I think we're waiting on splash plays, and we don't get them, we're not converting third downs. It's just inefficient, bad ball."

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Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Chandon Sullivan (34) during a regular season game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Texans, Sunday, Oct. 1, 2023 in Houston, TX. (Karl Roser / Pittsburgh Steelers)