Houston Texans Use Dominant First Quarter to Beat Pittsburgh Steelers

Arian Foster rushed for 155 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter and the Houston Texans overcame an injury to All-Pro Andre Johnson to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-10 yesterday.  Johnson left in the second quarter with a right hamstring injury and did not return to the game, though he was back on the sideline late to watch Houston (3-1) finish off the injury-plagued Steelers (2-2).

The Texans received the opening kickoff and held on to the ball for a team-record 10:55. The 19 play, 82 yard drive was hampered by two holding penalties and capped off by a 1 yard touchdown pass to Owen Daniels from Matt Schaub.

The Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger was under pressure all day and was sacked five times behind an offensive line missing two regular starters. The Steelers lost running back Rashard Mendenhall (hamstring), linebacker James Harrison (eye) and defensive end Aaron Smith (foot) during the game.

The Texans should have beaten the Steelers by a larger margin, but two touchdowns were taken off the scoreboard due to penalties.  At the end of the second quarter, the Texans blocked a Pittsburgh field goal and returned it for a touchdown. But a block-in-the-back penalty by Danieal Manning negated the score.  An interception return for a touchdown by Johnathan Joseph late in the fourth quarter was also negated after a roughing the passer penalty was called on the Texans.

“That just tells you we weren’t going to let anything get in our way today,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said to HoustonTexans.com. “We knew there were going to be some tough breaks in the game. A lot of times when those things happen to teams, they can’t overcome them. But that wasn’t the case today.”

Foster, the 2010 NFL rushing champion, finally looked healthy after weeks of nursing a left hamstring strain. Matt Schaub threw a touchdown pass to Owen Daniels for the Texans, who are 3-1 for the second straight season.

Defensively, Mario Williams shined again for the Texans.  He finished the game with 5 tackles, 2 sacks and 2 quarterback hits.

The Texans next week play against the Raiders and the following week at the Baltimore Ravens.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report