0 turnovers, 0 sacks, and fading hope
I don't know which is more disappointing, the Steelers offensive line, or the entire Steelers defense. I'll start with the latter . . .
Houston took the opening kick-off and marched 95 yards over the entire first quarter for a touchdown. The Steeler defense couldn't stop the run, the pass, or even the walk. Arian Foster, who ran for 155 yards on 30 carries, was running through holes so large they were probably visible from satellites in outer space.
Dude, where's my defense? Through four games this year (one quarter of the 2011 regular season) the Steelers have forced only 1 turnover, and 0 for this game. Nor did they sack the Texans QB, not even once. (To give you a little perspective, the Detroit freaking Lions forced 3 turnovers just in the second half alone of their come-from-behind win in Dallas--Detroit Lions 3 turnovers in one half, the Steeler defense 1 turnover in 4 f@cking games).
A tradition in my house is to crank Styx' "Renegade" to celebrate great plays by the Steeler D (that is QB sacks, fumble recovers, and interceptions). The stereo is carefully queued up to track 4 on my Styx compilation and 39 seconds into the song . . . and there it stayed after games end. Disappointing to the last.
The only Steeler defender who seemed to play with intensity and some sense of urgency was Polamalu, Troy Polamalu, who managed 8 tackles. Is it possible that Pittsburgh could make about 10 clones of him to fill out the rest of the defensive squad? As sad as the Steelers defensive effort was, they still held Houston to 17 points, and are still not the Steelers' greatest concern. That would be Pittsburgh offensive line.
Big Ben was sacked 5 times, and slammed senseless on every other offensive play. If he's getting sacked half a dozen times every game, I don't see how he survives the season. He may have even suffered a broken foot (again) on a late hit below the knee in the games' final minutes.
Here's a drinking game for you: every time the ball is snapped when the Steelers are on offense try saying "one-one-thousand" before Ben gets nailed. If you get past "one-one-thou . . ." take a drink, but I guarantee that you'll be lucky to get just one sip by games end. In fact, this would be a good drinking game for someone trying to quit.
Seriously, its time for someone in the Steelers front office to call Flozell Adams and Max Starks and offer them their jobs back. The Gilbert and Scott experiment has failed. Miserably.
The low-lights on offense include another game in which Rashard Mendenhall averaged less than 3 yards per carry (25 yards on 9 rushing attempts). Mendenhall suffered a hamstring injury and was amply replaced by Isaac Redman and Mewelde Moore who together totaled 74 yards on 10 carries (a 7.4 yard per carry average).
Pittsburgh fell behind 10-0 before half time, but put together two solid back-to-back drives in the third quarter. One culminated in a touchdown run by Mendenhall, and the other should have resulted in a touchdown too. A great run by Moore would have put the ball on the Texans 6 yard line for first-and-goal, except for an inexplicable late hit call on center Maurkice Pouncey. He's one of our offensive lineman -- they don't hit anybody! The 15 yard penalty meant the Steelers would have to settle for a field goal and a 10-10 tie in the fourth quarter.
But just before Steeler Nation could get its hopes up, Foster tore threw Pittsburgh's so-called defense for a 42 yard scoring run, and 17-10 Texans lead.
The Steelers were victimized by another penalty early in the game against Mike Wallace. After a big pass play and some considerable yacs, Wallace decided to exercise what he thought was his First Amendment right. However, the game officials reminded him that he was in the Republic of Texas and only corporations have speech rights there. Wallace finished with 77 yards receiving on the day, breaking his streak of consecutive 100-yard games.
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