After the Steelers put together their first good drive of the game, the Texans decided to deny them any points. After getting a stop on third down, Roethlisberger decided to try and draw the Texans offsides. When that didn't work, he let the clock run down and called a timeout.
That set up a chip shot of a field gaol, which Houston promptly blocked to preserve the shutout. The increasingly important Johnathan Joseph came up with the ball, but a dumb block in the back by Danieal Manning negated the return for a touchdown and, with the clock expiring, the Texans didn't get another play. It was yet another damaging penalty in a half full of them for Houston.
Let's take a quick look at the numbers:
- Matt Schaub is 10 for 15 passing for 95 yards with a touchdown.
- His leading receiver is Andre Johnson, who has four catches for 36 yards, but went into the locker room early after collapsing without being hit on a catch over the middle. Johnson was holding his knee on the ground, but the fact that they let him walk off the field is a little encouraging to me. Looked eerily like the play where Wes Welker blew out his ACL for my taste.
- What can you say about Arian Foster? After not really playing all season, he has ripped through the Steeler defense for 96 yards on 19 carries. Add in one catch for 8 yards and he's already topped 100 all-purpose yards by halftime and reached his "20 touch" limit which most national commentators said he'd be held to.
- The Texan defense has done a good job, limiting the Steelers to just 125 total yards and seven first downs. However, 77 of those yards have come through the air to Mike Wallace. Houston needs to figure out how to slow him down in the second half.