Wild Card Round: 49ers, Bills, Bears & NFL Playoffs Highlights

That’s how dangerous the Texans defense is and that’s the fear that puts their rivals in their bodies. The absolute dominance of the game by Houston’s defensive unit left the Steelers with no option, even with CJ Stroud determined to give them three extra lives with his three turnovers… but the thing is that Pittsburgh’s attack only got three points from those recovered balls and because one of them was already leaving them within Field Goal distance.

It was a historic display of the Texans defense. So much so, that Aaron Rodgers had the worst Playoff performance by a QB in the last ten years if we look at the success ratio per play and the EPA per pass. It is also the worst offensive performance by an offense of the entire decade in the Playoffs in EPA per play (which is the advanced statistic that best reflects what has happened on the field).

The Steelers had no option and the worst thing is that even when they were only one point away, with the score 7-6, it didn’t seem like they had the offensive arguments to turn it around. Pittsburgh needs to look in the mirror because they have been living in Groundhog Day for ten years: They never record a losing record in the regular season, but at the same time they never win a Playoff game. In the last ten years, they have played seven Playoff games and lost all seven. And what’s worse, they haven’t led on the scoreboard in the second half of any of those seven games. The context doesn’t matter, the Quarterback doesn’t matter. Kenny Pickett, Russell Wilson or Aaron Rodgers, the result is always the same.

On Houston’s part, only CJ Stroud’s inexplicable desire to give the ball to the defense in this game prevented the Texans from crushing the Steelers; Although well, the game really ended up being a beating, simply those three turnovers kept the score tied for a while longer. The Texans ran the ball better than they ever did all season, making successful runs on nearly half of their rushing attempts. And Stroud took more than one very good shot, although of course, he accompanied them with other quite imprecise ones and gave away three balls. The good news for Houston is that it is difficult for them to repeat such a bad game in the next round, especially when they were coming off a full season without a single fumble.

The Texans are very scary with that ability to determine games from their defense and they will travel to Foxborough where they will face the Patriots who also had a great defensive day against the Chargers and a Drake Maye who proved to be able to hold his own when things go wrong.