38
17
The game started with a touching tribute to Ernie Holmes, Dwight White and Myron Cope, members of the Steelers family who passed away over the last year. Along with representatives from their families, the Steelers had legends L.C. Greenwood, Mel Blount, and Joe Greene on the field to honor the departed.
The Terrible Towel display during the moment of silence for the departed.
Charlie Daniels can still belt it.
Ironically, there’s a Texas flag in the background of this picture. It would be the best anything from Texas not named Casey Hampton would look all game.
WOOOOOOOOOOOO
Reed pounds the opening kickoff into the end zone, but Andre Davis elects to bring it out and barely makes it over the 20.
The Texans come out throwing as Schaub hits Kevin Walter on an out route for 11 yards. Schaub tries a swing pass to Green, but Polamalu blows it up. Andre Johnson makes his first appearance of the game and snags one for a first down, quieting the crowd a bit. Apparently the Texans didn’t remember what happened last time Steve Slaton played against a team from Pittsburgh, and they brought him in for Green. The D stands on first down, but Farrior jumps offsides on second down, and Slaton picks up 2 to set up 3rd and 3. Schaub hits a short pass but Deshea is there for the stop to set up 4th and 1. With the ball at midfield, Houston opts to go for it. Apparently Casey Hampton heard there were Cheesy Poofs on the Texans side of the line because he sliced between the guard and center and stopped Schaub in his tracks on a QB sneak.
After the TV timeout, Houston threw the red flag, hoping to get the call overturned, but it wasn’t happening.
Ben comes out with a short field and hands off to Willie for no gain. But right off the bat, just like in the preseason…
It’s about time more people started making this joke. Heath needs t-shirts.
Willie, determined not to let Ben be the leading rusher on the team for too long, picks up 3 and 4 on the next two plays before Ben hits Santonio on a slant route to pick up the first down. Santonio, tell the boys in white what down it is.
Houston decides not to block Woodley and he buries Schaub in the turf.
Remind you of the old Steelers anyone?
Mewelde Moore makes a nice running fair catch and it’s our ball again.
Ben runs play-action on first down and goes downtown for Hines who makes a great catch while a defender is hanging all over him then takes it all the way to the Houston 2 as laundry litters the field. On an absolutely terrible call, they called offsetting penalites. Offensive pass interference on Hines for “pushing off” a defender that was hanging all over him, and facemask on Houston at the end of the play. The penalties offset, and it was first down…again.
Mario Williams stopped Willie on first down part 2, but Ben found Heath down the seam to move the chains. As hard as this might be to believe, Ben was pressured and threw the ball away on the next play, which would end up being his only incomplete pass of the game. Ben went back to Hines across the middle and he scampered for some great YAC yards to get the ball down to the Houston 34 as the quarter ended.
To make things better, the Texans came back onto the field on offense. Slaton for 4, Slaton for 2. Schaub tries to dump off a short pass but Big Stick reaches out a limb and tips the ball back to himself for the interception.
Mendenhall comes in and busts for 6 yards on his first carry. Mendenhall got dragged down by his facemask and the ref right in front of him didn’t throw his flag. Luckily, the ref from the far corner chucked his flag across the field to make the call. Absurd. 1st and 10 from the 13. The Steelers line up with Hines in the slot and you know what’s coming. Ben runs a perfect play action, takes one step back and fires one across the middle. Houston’s defense is caught flat-footed and Hines pulls it down for the touchdown.
With the ball on the 32, the Steelers were ready to drive the nail in the coffin, but on the first play Mario Williams gets free and sacks Ben. The ball comes loose and DeMeco Ryans scoops it up and charges the other way. Willie Parker finally makes the tackle, but gets called for a facemask and the Texans get the ball at the 12.
Woodley and the Diesel stop Slaton in the backfield on first down. Farrior and Smith plug up the hole on second down to force a 3rd and 15. Schaub dumps one off to Green and Timmons makes a great open-field tackle. Former Steeler Kris Brown comes on to a chorus of boos and knocks home a 34-yard field goal.
Parker came out with two solid runs to set up 3rd and 2, but Mario Williams found his way to Ben again and brought him down for a sack. Mitch Berger came on for his first punt of the year. Willie Gay made a great tackle running from the outside to stop the Texans returner in his tracks.
With a little under 3 minutes left, Houston seems poised to cut into the lead even more. Schaub hits Slaton for 5 then Owen Daniels for 10 to move the chains. Schaub completes another pass, but that would be his last of the half. The Diesel applies the heat and Schaub can’t find his receiver on 2nd down. Townsend gets a hand on a 3rd down pass that Clark might have picked off if Deshea handn’t gotten a paw on it. Turk punts it into the end zone for a touchback.
The Steelers look content to run out the clock with Parker, but Houston uses a timeout after second down to force the Steelers to make a decision on 3rd down. Unlike the wimpy play call Arians made in the playoff game on 3rd and 5, Ben fires one to Hines to pick up the first down. Ben gets up a little slow, but makes his way up to the line, calls a play and hands off to Willie to end the half.
The Steelers get the kick and it was the Willie Parker show. He starts the drive with runs of 12, 9, and 8 yards. After a penalty for defensive holding on another run by the Flash, Mendenhall coems in to give Willie a breather. Mendenhall carries for 6 and 9 yards to get the ball into the red zone. Parker comes back in and picks up 3. The Steelers come out on 2nd and 7 with a double-tight Power I set with Ward and Holmes on the sidelines. The guy next to me says “This looks like the old Steelers! We’re gonna run it right at them.” To everyone’s surprise, Ben fakes a pitch to Parker and hits Davis all alone in the flat to move the ball down to the 6. Parker pounds out 2 hard yards to get the ball to the 4. On a play that looked eerily similar to the play they ran for his second touchdown run, Parker goes off-tackle again and takes it to the house for touchdown #3.
What a great drive to start the second half. 10 plays (9 of them rushing), 71 yards and 6 minutes off the clock.
Houston responds to the Steelers long drive by going 3-and-out and putting their defense back out on the field. Coach, determined to get Willie his 100 yards, gives him the ball on first down. Ben goes to Spaeth on 2nd down and he bulldozes DeMeco Ryans as he reaches for the sticks, but comes up just short. Parker slashes for 4 and picks up the first down. Ben mixes it up and goes to the air on first down, but Hines can only get a few. On 2nd and 8, the Flash charges around the corner for 13 yards to put him over 100 on the day. But the Flash wasn’t done. He took the next handoff around the right end and broke free, but cruised out of bounds at the Houston 21 as he ran out of gas.
Mendenhall came in and bruised for 5 yards on 2 carries to set up 3rd down. It looked like the Steelers were going to be content with a field goal, but Ben fired one over the middle and Hines pulled it down in the end zone for his second score of the game.
I don’t know coach, I just keep throwing touchdown passes!
That was the last we’d see of Ben, but he finished the game a stellar 13/14 for 137 and 2 TDs.
Byron came in to play the 4th quarter as most of the starters got a rest. Mendenhall carried twice and Byron couldn’t find Holmes on 3rd down, forcing a punt.
Houston was determined not to give up, and the next drive showed it. Against the Steelers second string defense, Houston’s offense finally came to life. Schaub hit Walter and Johnson for solid gains to move the ball inside the 30. Ryan Clark came back into the game and put a big hit on Steve Slaton. Welcome to the NFL son. Houston got flagged for a false start, but then got a huge break when Clark got called for pass intereference on what looked quite similar to what happened with Hines in the first half. It’s debatable whether or not the pass was catchable, and Tomlin had some words with the officials. With 1st and goal at the 4, Houston looked poised to score, but a tripping penalty sent them back to the 15. Slaton got stopped in the backfield and it looked like the red zone defense might hold again. But on 3rd down Schaub found Kevin Walter over the middle for the score.
The Steelers come out and go run-run-incomplete pass-punt. No surprise there, the game was well in hand.
Schaub hits Johnson for 5 and Slaton slashes for 8 to start the next drive. On first down, Some Kind of Monster comes from Schaub’s blindside and rocks him, knocking the ball free. A Texans lineman tries to fall on the ball, but he misses and Big Stick smothers it.
Houston challenged again hoping to get a Brady-esque ruling, but it wasn’t happening. Namely because “Houston” is no where near the same as “New England.”
Mendenhall ran for 2, then Byron couldn’t hook up with Davis or Nasty Nate, as Reed came on to hit his first field goal of the year.
Schaub hits Johnson for a first down before being sacked again by James Harrison. Daniels snags one on second down and Slaton picks up the first down on 3rd and 4. Schaub continues to pick the Steelers apart by hitting Daniels again and Johnson twice to get the ball down to the 4. Schaub runs a play-action bootleg and no one on the defense is home as he is able to scramble for the corner of the end zone.
The Steelers win their 6th straight season opener and 6th straight home opener.
Players of the Game:
Offensive Game Ball: Willie Parker 3 TDs, 138 yards
Defensive Game Ball: LaMarr Woodley 1.5 sacks, 1 INT, 1 fumble recovery
Honorable Mentions:
Ben Roethlisberger 13/14 137 yards, 2 TDs
Hines Ward 6 rec, 76 yds, 2 TDs
James Harrison 8 tackles, 3 sacks
NBC
In their halftime highlights during the Colts-Bears game on Sunday night, NBC touched on every game except for the Steelers game. They also mentioned that “all the elite teams in the AFC are falling on their faces today” meaning New England, Indy, San Diego and Jacksonville.
Guess what? As of right now, we’re an elite AFC team.
Cleveland looked downright awful (more on that in our Week 1 recap tomorrow).
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