The Houston Texans enter Week 3 against the Pittsburgh Steelers as the underdog yet again.
For the third straight time to start the 2020 season the Houston Texans aren’t the favorites entering the game, and this time it is the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers who are the favorites.
The Steelers — according to The Action Network — are -4 favorites over the Houston Texans. For the Texans, who are on the road for the second time in three weeks, this is the closest they’ve been to their opponent by the oddsmakers.
That said, this Houston Texans team is tough to gauge because no team in the NFL during the first two weeks have face the quality of high-level competition that they’ve taken on in the first two games.
If there has been another team who has played back-to-back games against teams on the same level as the Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens I’d like to see it, meaning it has been a gauntlet to start the year.
This isn’t saying the Pittsburgh Steelers are a push over, because they aren’t as they are 2-0 early in the season with wins over the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos. On the flip side, the Steelers have yet to face a quarterback like Deshaun Watson in 2020.
In the first two games of the season Watson has passed for 528 yards for two touchdowns and two interceptions, throwing one touchdown and one interception in each of the first two games. Watson has completed 66.2 percent of his passes.
Watson has also rushed for 44 yards this season with one touchdown run on 11 carries. This season Watson is rushing for 4.0 yards per carry, with his longest rush for 13 yards after the first two games, and has been sacked eight times.
Another aspect of this game is the play of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger this season. After being injured in 2019, Roethlisberger has completed 50 of his 73 attempts for 540 yards with five touchdowns and one interception in 2020.
“Big Ben” has been sacked three times in two games, and he’s even had an 11 yard rush. With the loss of yardage added in, the Steelers QB has rushed six times for a total of seven yards in the first two games played.
This still isn’t a “must-win” game for the Houston Texans, but a win would be really nice for Houston. They have a chance to play within the -4 of the oddsmakers prediction, but maybe this is the game where they finally turn things around in the column.