Opportunistic Steelers take advantage of self destructing Texans in 30-23 win

The Houston Texans self destructed Monday night and the Pittsburgh Steelers took advantage, to improve to 4-3 on the season with a 30-23 win over the Texans. After falling behind 13-0 and getting booed by their home crowd, things would quickly turn in the Steelers favor late in the second quarter

Two Texans turnovers inside their own 20 yard line played a big part in the huge momentum turn as the Steelers scored 24 points in a 2:54 span, including three touchdowns in a 73 second span, storming out to a 24-13 lead at the half.

Field Goal 3:08 | Shaun Suisham Made 44 Yrd Field Goal (13-3 Houston)

Drive 8 plays, 60 yds, 4:08

Touchdown 1:27 | Martavis Bryant Pass From Ben Roethlisberger for 35 Yards (13-10 Houston)

Drive 2 plays, 63 yds, 0:19

Touchdown 1:03 | Lance Moore Pass From Antonio Brown for 3 Yards (17-13 Pittsburgh)

Drive 1 play, 3 yds, 0:07

Touchdown 0:14 | Le’Veon Bell Pass From Ben Roethlisberger for 2 Yards (24-13 Pittsburgh)

Drive 2 plays, 8 yds, 0:44

The Steelers were so bad that for the first 25 minutes of the game, comments like “I don’t know what they are” from Jon Gruden about the Steelers offense was frequent until late in the second quarter.

A key turning point that jump started the Steelers was a 3rd and 10 conversion from Le’Veon Bell as Bell took a short pass from Roethlisberger inside the Steelers 20 yard line and went off for 43 yards. The Steelers had to settle for a field goal to cut the Texans lead to 13-3 but what the drive did was give Steelers their first sign of life.

The defense followed with a three and out and Martavis Bryant would make his presence felt as Roethlisberger connected with Bryant for a 35 yard touchdown on a deep pass to get the Steelers back in the game and the tide quickly turned.

Bryant finished the night with 2 catches for 40 yards and a touchdown on 5 targets. What stood out with Bryant was just the presence of having a big target as a deep threat. It was a nice dynamic for the Steelers tonight.

As the game progressed, Bryant earned playing time over Markus Wheaton and that trend could continue in the coming weeks. Bryant is the Steelers best hope of having a receiver who can strike fear in the opposition other than Antonio Brown or at least be a player the opposition has to worry about.

Brown had another monster game throwing a three yard touchdown pass to Lance Moore and hauled in 9 catches for 90 yards, including a couple of big plays in the second half to keep drives going.

The Steelers were opportunistic forcing three turnovers and scored 17 points off turnovers.

“Terrible second quarter, couldn’t come back from it,” Texans head coach Bill O’Brien said of the Texans self destructing.

As bad as the Texans self destructed and it continued in the second half with 3rd down penalties and a turnover, they were still an onside kick away that they nearly recovered from tying the game.

Just like the Jacksonville win for the Steelers, this win showed little that the Steelers are starting to turn the corner. It was just a win against another mediocre team

Le’Veon Bell – 145 Yards from Scrimmage, TD Reception

Lawerence Timmons – 12 Tackles, Sack, 2 Tackles for Loss