The Pittsburgh Steelers went to Houston yesterday and basically got their rear ends handed to them by a Texans team that outplayed them on both sides of the ball. When the dust settled the Steelers had a 17-10 loss (that wasn't even representative of how badly they were outplayed), an injury to Ben Roethlisberger, and more questions about the composition of their team than ever before. Maybe James Harrison said it best, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
"We played like garbage. Period," linebacker James Harrison said. "We stink."
That may be oversimplification, but I don't think anyone was impressed with what they saw out of the Steelers on Sunday. The offensive line allowed the Texans to get to Big Ben early and often, and the defense had a hard time getting off the field against Arian Foster and the Texans' rush offense. Mike Tomlin seems confident that their issues can be solved with some hard work.
"We've got some work to do," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "It's not anything mystical. We will remain together."
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Behind The Steel Curtain seems a little less optimistic about their performance. While the offensive line is going to get a lot of the headlines with the injury to Roethlisberger, they are also concerned with that the rush defense (one of the hallmarks of this team throughout the years) also struggled.
The rush defense? Not so much. And I know I'm not alone in feeling concerned about the front seven's inability to stuff the run like we're so accustomed to seeing.
Arian Foster had a big day, finishing with 155 yards on 30 attempts. The Steelers did tighten the screws during the third quarter, but after tying the game at 10-10, Foster ripped off a 42-yard TD run that proved the be the game winner.
The Steelers will have a chance to turn it around against the suddenly-respectable Titans next week.
