Sunday's matchup with the Steelers is chock full 'o storylines. The Texans are back in Houston after their first win of the year at Jacksonville in week three. The Steelers have won two straight in primetime. Future Hall of Fame legend J.J. Watt will be inducted into the Ring of Honor. His brother T.J. Watt will don the black and gold on the other sidelines for the Steelers. My goodness, it's going to be a wild weekend so here's my By the Numbers for this key matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
1 - Texans QB C.J. Stroud earned his first Player of the Month award as he was named September's Rookie of the Month in the league.
5 - Stroud became the fifth Texan offensive player to win a Rookie Player of the Month award in the history of the franchise. Can you name the four that won that honor before him?
906 - C.J. threw for the third most total yards in his first three starts as a rookie. Only two players threw for more in their first three starts, one is active and one was drafted in J.J. Watt's 2011 draft class. Can you name them?
3 - Three rookie Texans defensive players won Rookie of the Month. Brian Cushing won it twice in 2009 and a linebacker named DeMeco Ryans won it once in 2006. Heard of him?
145 - Texans WR Tank Dell set a Houston Texans rookie record with 145 yards receiving in the win over Jacksonville. He caught five passes for 145 yards and a touchdown in the 37-17 win over the Jaguars.
2 - The Texans are the only team in the league with TWO receivers registering 250+ receiving yards - Nico Collins has 260 through three games and Tank Dell has 251 after his performance on Sunday.
15 - All three Texans receivers have 15 catches each - Tank Dell, Nico Collins and Robert Woods.
11 - Of Woods' 15 catches, 11 of them have gone for a first down.
85 - How could I have gotten this far and not dropped the most mentioned numbers nugget from last week's win? Andrew Beck's 85-yard KO return for a TD was the longest for a TD for a player over 250 lb. since 1950. What a memorable play that was!!
22.5 - The most sacks any defensive player has ever registered in a single season is 22.5. Two men have hit that number.
1 - One of them will be in the building on Sunday - Steelers T.J. Watt. He tied former Houstonian Michael Strahan in 2021 with 22.5 sacks and picked up a Defensive Player of the Year Award as a result.
4 - The Watt brothers have won four of the last 11 Defensive Players of the Year. In fact, with LA Rams great Aaron Donald winning three in that time frame, a Watt or a Donald won the award seven times in the last decade plus.
2 - J.J. Watt went one better than his bro, racking up TWO 20-sack seasons in his career (2012 & 2014).
5 - The Texans will start their fifth different OL combination in the team's last six games, dating back to Week 18 in 2022. With Laremy Tunsil still banged up and Josh Jones now more than likely missing the game due to an injury, the Texans will start their third different OL combination in four games to start this season. They'll start a third different player at LT due to the absence of Tunsil and Jones.
644 - Sunday will be another opportunity for the Texans to eradicate one of the longest dry spells. The Texans last home win was on December 26, 2021 and there's no time like the present to end that streak.
Alright, it's time to turn that 644 into a 0 and finish this weekend with a great one against the Steelers on Sunday. See ya then, everyone…oh and one final note.
Thanks 99!
