{"id":406702,"date":"2026-01-13T16:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406702\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T16:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T16:20:12","slug":"texans-defence-closes-curtains-on-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/406702\/","title":{"rendered":"Texans\u2019 defence closes curtains on Steelers"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2013 You could feel Aaron Rodgers<\/a>\u2019 patience waning and frustration mounting over the course of three quarters during Monday night\u2019s AFC Wild-Card Game between the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> and Houston Texans<\/a>. <\/p>\n

His Steelers trailed the Texans 7-6 entering the fourth quarter, despite the Pittsburgh defence having taken the ball away from Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud<\/a> three times.<\/p>\n

The result of those three takeaways, however, was just 27 yards of offence and three points, a good indication of the problems Pittsburgh was having moving the ball against the NFL\u2019s best defence.<\/p>\n

And Houston\u2019s defence showed up to the postseason exactly as advertised \u2013 able to generate fierce pressure on most passing downs by rushing only four. Backed by a secondary that includes two elite corners in Derek Stingley Jr.<\/a> and Kamari Lassiter<\/a>, not to mention safety Jalen Pitre<\/a>, the Texans were able to take away all of the Steelers\u2019 reliable options on offence.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s No. 1 receiver, DK Metcalf<\/a>, had two catches early on and that was it for the night, only targeted once beyond the first quarter. The run game struggled to generate yards. And in a game where the Steelers\u2019 tendency to unload quick passes to their running backs to make gains in open space should have been an effective counter to the Texans\u2019 constant pursuit, that wasn\u2019t working either.<\/p>\n

The scoreboard through three quarters betrayed what was happening on the field \u2013 especially on third downs, where the Steelers converted just two of 14 opportunities on the night.<\/p>\n

And Rodgers knew it.<\/p>\n

The Steelers were never going to score with a 10-, 12- or 14-play drive. It simply wasn\u2019t in the cards. Rodgers would have to go big-play hunting if Pittsburgh was going to pull this one out.<\/p>\n

You could see him looking for those opportunities during the second half. The obvious risk of that strategy was that Rodgers rarely had time to complete intermediate passes against the Texans, much less allowing the time for his receivers to separate from coverage deep downfield.<\/p>\n

But on the scale or risk versus reward, it was easy to understand what the Steelers quarterback and offensive minds were thinking. Playing it safe was certain defeat.<\/p>\n

So, early in the fourth quarter, trailing 10-6 after the Texans had added a field goal, it was time for Pittsburgh to go for it.<\/p>\n

Rodgers threw a deep ball to Calvin Austin on first down that fell incomplete. After a two-yard loss on a running play, the Steelers faced third-and-12 at the Pittsburgh 43-yard line when Rodgers dropped back and looked deep again.<\/p>\n

Only this time defensive end Will Anderson Jr.<\/a> and defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins<\/a> both got to Rodgers before he could unleash the ball, causing a strip-sack fumble that Rankins picked up and took 33 yards for a touchdown to make it 17-6 and effectively end the game.<\/p>\n

The NFL playoffs have thus far been characterized by some remarkable fourth-quarter lead changes and momentum swings, but not on this night.<\/p>\n

Turnovers aside, Stroud was not at his best during the game\u2019s first three quarters, but when you\u2019ve got a lead and the NFL\u2019s best defence there\u2019s no reason for desperate offensive football.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the luxury that Stroud enjoyed against the Steelers Monday night, just as he has most of this season.<\/p>\n

Despite Stroud losing two fumbles during the first half \u2013 after going the entire season without losing a single one \u2013 and adding a red-zone interception early in the third quarter, the Texans played like a team that believed its defence would take care of business.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s exactly what transpired, with Pittsburgh\u2019s final two possessions after the Rankins touchdown resulting in their sixth punt of the night and pick-six to close out the game\u2019s scoring at 30-6.<\/p>\n

How much did Houston\u2019s defence dominate?<\/p>\n

Well, consider that if the Texans\u2019 offence had never taken the field, their defence would have outscored the Steelers 14-6. Or that in a league where winning the turnover battle is highly correlated to victory, Pittsburgh managed to do so and still lost the game by 24 points.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s seventh consecutive postseason loss under head coach Mike Tomlin was its most humbling. Understandably, losing in that fashion is going to bring all kinds of discussion about what changes should follow, with the quarterback and Tomlin, who is in his 19th year, at the centre of that talk.<\/p>\n

Monday night\u2019s loss wasn\u2019t on Rodgers, but it\u2019s hard to imagine him returning to a place where the home fans booed the offence much of the night and the season ended so badly.<\/p>\n

Tomlin is a different story, but the fact he would be instantly employable elsewhere in the NFL makes one wonder if he might decide it\u2019s time to go.<\/p>\n

Any season where a team wins its division is never regrettable, but the ending can be. The only question now is how many endings actually took place Monday night.<\/p>\n

Related Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2013 You could feel Aaron Rodgers\u2019 patience waning and frustration mounting over the course of three quarters…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[134100,712,49,48,171459,133923,514,104355,82],"class_list":["post-406702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-aaron-rodgers-sports-football-player-player-statscom-213957","tag-apple-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cj-stroud-sports-football-player-player-statscom-1214084","tag-houston-texans-sports-football-team-team-statscom-325","tag-nfl","tag-pittsburgh-steelers-sports-football-team-team-statscom-356","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}