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Steelers running back James Conner picks up a first down Sunday at Heinz Field.
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The Steelers are 3-0 for the first time in a decade

Peter Diana/Post-Gazette

The Steelers are 3-0 for the first time in a decade

Ben Roethlisberger and Co. rally past Texans at Heinz Field to stay unbeaten

In a season that already is unlike any other, the Steelers are off to a start that has been unlike any other. Well, at least for the past decade.

They are 3-0 for the first time in 10 years and only the third time in Mike Tomlin’s tenure.

Their defense continues to torment opposing quarterbacks, even an elusive one such as Deshaun Watson, and come up with a takeaway when it matters most.

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And their oft-maligned running game closed out another victory and remained the only team in the league to have a 100-yard rusher in each of the first three games this season.

Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt celebrates after sacking Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson on Sunday.
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They did it again Sunday at Heinz Field, coming back from a 14-3 deficit in the second quarter to beat the Houston Texans, 28-21, to start 3-0 for the first time since they went to the Super Bowl in 2010.

“There’s no fans here, but we still want to win at home,” said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who appeared in his 221st game with the Steelers, surpassing Mike Webster as the team’s all-time leader. “We still have the same mentality when we’re at home. For us to get off to a fast start like this is important and fun.”

It has been a complete reversal from last season, when the Steelers started 0-3 and didn’t win their first game until Sept. 30 against the Cincinnati Bengals. And they’re doing it in a fairly complete way.

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Roethlisberger passed for 237 yards and two touchdowns, James Conner rushed for 109 yards and the Steelers got big contributions from two of their newest players — tight end Eric Ebron and rookie running back Anthony McFarland Jr.

Couple that with a defense that sacked Watson five times, held the Texans to 51 yards offense and two first downs in the second half and came up with a big interception by nickel back Mike Hilton that fueled the winning 12-play, 79-yard touchdown drive with 6:24 remaining.

“We’re a fourth-quarter team,” said Conner, who rushed for 100 yards for the second game in a row. “Our defense allowed us to get back in. When the defense is making three-and-out stops, keep putting us back on offense, we’ve got to get it going eventually.”

 

 

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The Steelers finished with 169 yards rushing — most this season — and got 42 yards on six carries from McFarland, their fourth-round draft choice. It was McFarland’s 20-yard run that jump-started a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive that ended with an acrobatic 10-yard touchdown catch by Ebron to cut the Texans lead to 14-10.

“It’s been critical because all these game are close,” Tomlin said. “Everything in the NFL is a one-score game, so your ability to possess the ball and not put your defense back in harm’s way, to win the critical possession downs, be it a run or run-like action, is important.”

There was no better example of that than on the winning touchdown drive, which ended with Conner’s 12-yard run and a two-point conversion pass from Roethlisberger to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Conner carried four times for 35 yards, and Roethlisberger completed 6-of-7 passes for 42 yards — the most critical a 14-yarder to tight end Vance McDonald on third-and-2 at the Texans’ 30.

The Steelers could have tacked on another score after yet another big third-down conversion by Roethlisberger on a 24-yard catch-and-run by rookie receiver Chase Claypool to the Texans 3 with two minutes remaining. But, with the Texans out of timeouts, Roethlisberger took three consecutive kneel-downs to run out the clock.

“This is three weeks in a row our four-minute offense [comes in] and you need to run the ball out,” Roethlisberger said. “That’s impressive when we get to do the best play in football, which is the victory formation three weeks in a row. That’s an awesome feeling.”

Watson had a big first-half against the Steelers, throwing for 202 yards and two touchdowns and staking the Texans to leads of 14-3 and 21-17 in the first half. Even after the Steelers went on a 75-yard drive in 84 seconds to take a 17-14 lead on a 26-yard touchdown to Smith Schuster with 1:14 remaining before half, Watson answered with an even quicker scoring drive.

He needed only 50 seconds to go 75 yards and score on a 14-yard touchdown to Will Fuller over cornerback Steve Nelson to give the Texans that 21-17 lead before halftime.

But that all changed after halftime when the Steelers changed how they rushed Watson and sacked him three times. He completed just five passes for 62 yards in the final two quarters.

One of the sacks was by linebacker T.J. Watt, who also had two tackles for loss and four quarterback hits on a day when he played against his brother — Texans defensive end J.J. Watt — for the first time. Watt sacked Watson for an 11-yard loss on first down on the Texans’ final possession.

“We knew coming out of halftime the energy was very down,” T.J. Watt said. “We thought as a defense we should be the ones to pick the pace up and lead it off.”

They did, and the offense followed suit. After Hilton’s interception, which Tomlin called “enormous,” the Steelers piled up 144 yards offense on two drives, thanks to converting three of four third-down chances and a fourth-and-1 on a 7-yard completion to James Washington.

And the work was equally split. The Steelers passed for 73 yards and rushed for 71 yards on their final two drives.

“That’s what you like to do, have nice long drives like that and put it away,” said guard David DeCastro, who returned for the first time since spraining his knee in training camp. “It’s pretty special when you can do that. That’s the way you draw it up.”

Gerry Dulac: gdulac@post-gazette.com and Twitter @gerrydulac

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First Published: September 27, 2020, 8:09 p.m.
Updated: September 27, 2020, 10:27 p.m.

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