Steel City Underground presents our 2017 Recall: a brief look back at Pittsburgh Steelers games from last season.

Another year, another Steelers game on Christmas Day.

As grandpa snored in his recliner, two teams took the field with the Steelers looking for a first-round bye in the 2017 NFL playoffs and another win for the season.

The Steelers offense took the field first after the opening kickoff. Ben Roethlisberger used quick, short passes from the shotgun to Martavis Bryant and Vance McDonald before handing off to Le’Veon Bell and coming up short and bringing out Chris Boswell for a field goal to put the first three points on the scoreboard.

He must've been on the naughty list…

@MikeHilton_31 with the sack.#HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/W91L1fxVEb

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 25, 2017

After Mike Hilton sacked quarterback T.J. Yates on third-and-nine in the Texans’ first offensive drive, the Steelers continued to spread the offense. A short pass to Eli Rogers helped set up a five-yard touchdown reception to Justin Hunter. The Steelers were able to go 54 yards on just six plays (2:04 of the clock used) to go up 10-0.

.@justinhunter_11 reels in his first TD in Black & Gold.

PIT 10 | HOU 0#HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/nX5GttMOZ5

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 25, 2017

The Texans offense came back out and went to the run with Lamar Miller and Alfred Blue, but Cam Heyward was having none of it and dumped Yates for his 11th sack on the season; making his sack total 36.0 and surpassing Lawrence Timmons and Kevin Green (35.5) for the eighth-most sacks by a Steelers defender since the stat became official in 1982. The Texans couldn’t get much going as the Steelers continued to play tough against the run and pass.

Heyward would grab his second sack with a little over two minutes left in the first half and forced a fumble; Bud Dupree recovered the ball to flip the field. On the next Houston offensive series, Hilton caused a fumble on a sack and recovered the ball. Yates would end up getting forced to the sidelines and locker room to be evaluated for a concussion.

Other highlights included Steelers cornerback Artie Burns grabbing his first interception of the 2017 season (fourth of his NFL career); Fullback Roosevelt Nix blasting into the end zone for his second NFL career and 2017 touchdown; Stevan Ridley adding carries to those of Bell.

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/945423817584685056

Houston quarterback Taylor Heinicke made his NFL debut coming in for the injured Yates to open the second half. It didn’t take too many plays before he was pressured by Vince Williams and then hit the turf, sacked for a loss of 16 yards by Hilton who had 3.0 sacks on the day. Yates was cleared to return to the game on the next series as Heinicke exited the blue sideline tent to head to the locker room.

Just before the end of the third quarter, it was Roethlisberger who was forced to the turf by Jadeveon Clowney. Clowney was penalized on the play for an inadvertent facemask to ‘Big Ben’ (the two guys joking and talking after the play in good spirits) that helped set up a ten-yard rushing touchdown by Bell.

9️⃣th rushing TD of the season for @L_Bell26.

PIT 27 | HOU 0 pic.twitter.com/A1npwmLcHb

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 25, 2017

The Steelers held a fun snowball fight celebration after the touchdown that had everyone wondering what was going on until the NFL analysts covering the game clarified. The Steelers looked comfortable and in good spirits during the majority of the game, easily dominating a Texans offense that struggled and defense that could not out-man the number of weapons Pittsburgh had at their disposal.

The only true highlight for the Texans was a throw from Yates to DeAndre Hopkins for a touchdown. Hopkins was a bit guilty of a tug on the jersey of Joe Haden but made an acrobatic catch after tipping the ball with one hand, catching it in the other – all while tapping both toes on the field (and part of Haden’s jersey?) for six points. Houston was unable to convert the two-point conversion after a penalty on Haden for getting a jump during the PAT attempt following Hopkins’ touchdown.

NO. WHAT. CATCH OF THE YEAR!?@DeAndreHopkins is BAD man! #Texans#PITvsHOU https://t.co/k0Wgx2JlCv

— NFL (@NFL) December 25, 2017

Not to be outdone, receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster would make two nice catches in a row that set up an 18-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Smith-Schuster had six receptions in the game for 75 yards (12.5 per play average, longest for 49 yards).

https://twitter.com/steelers/status/945446343438241793

The Texans had nothing left and the Steelers send Landry Jones out to wrap things up for a win. Holding Houston to no points until the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh utilized a whole-team approach to come away with the win, 34-6.

Just like Christmas morning… 🎁🎄🎁 pic.twitter.com/bLmvWnle5L

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 26, 2017

What Stood Out

Sack Hat Trick

Mike Hilton sacked Texans quarterbacks three times.

Since 1982, when sacks became an official statistic, there have been nine 3.0 sack games by NFL defensive backs – three of which by #Steelers defensive backs:

• Mike Hilton Dec. 25, 2017 at Houston
• Troy Polamalu Sept. 18, 2005 at Houston
• Carnell Lake Nov. 30, 1997 at Arizona

Hilton became third Steelers defensive back to tally 3.0 sacks in a game (C. Lake and T. Polamalu) since the stat became official in 1982

Mike Hilton was also the first Steelers cornerback to earn AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors since 2012 (I. Taylor, Week 9)

Belldozer

Le’Veon Bell carried the ball 14 times for 69 yards and a touchdown while adding five receptions for 28 yards.

Early Rest

Bell would make way for new addition Stevan Ridley (replacing James Conner as the backup). Ridley would carry the ball nine times for 28 yards to close out the game with several Steelers backups playing with the game well under control into the fourth quarter.

Impressive Rookie Season

JuJu Smith-Schuster led the Steelers with six catches for 75 yards and a touchdown. (Plus the aforementioned snowball fight!)

Heyward’s Benchmark

Cam Heyward logged two sacks, two tackles for a loss and forced a fumble on one of the sacks. It would be his 12th on the season, tying Keith Willis for the second-most by a Steelers lineman in a single-season.

Steelers Sacks

The Steelers defense reached 50 sacks in this game, the eighth season they’ve had at least 50 sacks in team history.

It was the team’s first 50-sack season since 2008, when Pittsburgh defeated Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII.

Run Defense

The Run D still looked miserable without Ryan Shazier.

Houston utilized extra offensive linemen when sustaining a drive in the third quarter that included 75 yards rushing by a combination of Lamar Miller, Alfred Blue, and QB T.J. Yates.

The only thing that kept the drive from resulting in points was an interception in the end zone by Artie Burns. (See Below)

The Steelers allowed 176 total rushing yards on 28 carries for a 6.3 yard-per-carry average. The loss of Shazier is something that would haunt them in the postseason.

Mike Tomlin’s Success

Tomlin led the Steelers to a 12-win season for the 4th time since becoming the team’s head coach in 2007.

Pittsburgh is tied for the 2nd-most seasons with at least 12 wins in the NFL since Tomlin became head coach in 2007:

• New England 9
• Pittsburgh 4
• Denver 4

Tomlin also increased his regular-season win total to 115 – tying Joe Gibbs for the second-most wins by a head coach in their first 11 seasons in NFL history (Don Shula: 117).

With his last field goal, Chris Boswell has set a franchise single-season record for the most field goals made, now with 35 in 2017. pic.twitter.com/3rYOHClny5

— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 25, 2017

More Boswell

With a 36-yard field goal against the Texans, Chris Boswell set a franchise single-season record for the most field goals made. At the time, that mark was 35:

• Chris Boswell 2017: 35
• Norm Johnson 1995: 34
• Gary Anderson 1985: 33

Embed from Getty Images

Play of the Game

There was a lot of talk about Artie Burns being replaced by rookie Cameron Sutton in Saturday’s practice leading up to this game. Sutton ran with the “ones” meaning he was working in with the starters. The presumed outcome that most thought might happen is that Burns was going to get demoted.

On Monday, Burns showed us why he’s the starter.

With the Texans closing within a yard of scoring, the Steelers corner made a clutch catch much like his teammates Antonio Brown or Martavis Bryant would, tip-toeing along the end line and securing an interception on Houston’s fourth attempt to lessen the gap of a 10-0 Steelers lead.

With another pass deflection later in the game, Burns showed why he belongs with the “ones”.