Reading the coverage of the Houston Texans...
I'm new to this city, but those who are not tell me it's filled with sports heartache. Jerome Solomon of the Houston Chronicle says the Texans added another chapter to the city's history of collapses with Monday night's 30-23 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Also, he calls himself a poet, I think.
The Chronicle's John McClain offers his grades for the Texans in Monday night's loss. He reserves his lowest grade for the Texans' coaches. Specialists and quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick were also not spared.
This one posted yesterday afternoon, but it's a good piece by Ashley Fox of ESPN.com on J.J. Watt. She offers a mea culpa, as the only person who didn't vote for Watt for Defensive Player of the Year in 2012. She also apologized to him in person. There's that and much more here.
Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel had a great game Monday night. One of his teammates thinks he was the best 99 on the field that night, writes Scott Brown of ESPN.com. I don't know about that ...
Arian Foster looked dominant against the Steelers, writes Chris Baldwin of Houston's Culture Map. But then he was part of the Texans' second-quarter nightmare.
Ralph Paulk of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review takes a look at a play that might have been the turning point in this game: the 43-yard reception by Le'Veon Bell on third-and-10 in the second quarter. From the story:
They had set up Bell's catch by making Houston's linebackers chase Bell on wheel routes. Bell caught all six balls thrown his way in the first half, mostly with a linebacker in coverage -- a mismatch that favored Bell, who totaled 91 yards receiving in the first half.
The Texans, among the league's best red-zone defenses, gave up a 13-yard completion to tight end Heath Miller on the next play. As Bell caught his breath on the sideline, the offense sputtered when linebacker Whitney Mercilus tracked down Roethlisberger for a sack at the Pittsburgh 26.
The Steelers trimmed the Texans' lead to 13-3 on a 35-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham. The points mattered, but Bell's 43-yard catch helped ignite a startling reversal of fortunes for the Steelers in the final 3:08 of the first half.