Oct 21, 2014 4 min read

PITTSBURGH – Two minutes and 54 seconds.

That’s how long it took the Steelers to completely change a game Monday night against the Houston Texans.

It might be a season-changing three minutes as they went on to a 30-23 victory over the Texans.

Trailing 13-0 and not showing much resistance throughout much of the first half, the Steelers finally broke through with a field goal that was set up, in part, by a 43-yard catch-and-run on third-and-10 from their own 14-yard line by running back Le’Veon Bell.

The field goal didn’t seem like much at the time, but it was like it opened a clogged drain for these Steelers.

With just more than three minutes remaining in the half, the Texans, who had done whatever they wanted to that point, gaining 101 rushing yards on 18 carries, got greedy.

Instead of simply continuing to run the ball and taking their 13-3 lead into the locker room – or possibly extending it to a seemingly insurmountable 16-3 lead with another field goal – Houston attempted to get more, giving up a second-down sack and throwing incomplete for a three-and-out.

Another pass to Bell – this one for 28 yards – and a 35-yard touchdown pass to rookie Martavis Bryant later, and this game had changed dramatically.

The Steelers would force a fumble by running back Arian Foster and intercept a pass by quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick in the next seven seconds to take a 24-13 lead into the locker room.

Talk about a shift in momentum.

You could feel it in the crowd, which to that point had been waiting to boo more than it had been awaiting to cheer big plays from the Steelers.

And the Steelers got some big plays during their late-first-half barrage.

Linebacker Jason Worilds, who had missed Fitzpatrick for a sack at the Houston 2 on third down on the Texans’ opening possession, forced the fumble by Foster at the Houston 3. That set up an Antonio Brown touchdown pass to Lance Moore off a pitch and end around that gave the Steelers a 17-13 lead.

Then, after defensive end Brett Keisel both tipped and intercepted a pass by Fitzpatrick, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger tossed a 2-yard TD pass to Bell.

It might have been a season-saving series of events for the Steelers.

Sure, at 3-4, they wouldn’t have been officially out of the playoff race in the AFC. After all, they started 2-6 last year and would have made the playoffs at 8-8 if Kansas City could have successfully kicked a game-winning field goal against San Diego in the final week of the season.

But at 4-3, the Steelers find themselves just a game behind Baltimore in the AFC North. They host the Ravens at Heinz Field in two weeks.

This is not to say the Steelers are going to win the division. There’s still a lot of football remaining to be played.

But the perception of the Steelers changed during that series of plays.

“It was good. A lot has been said about us,” said Keisel. “We stuck together, worked hard this week and did enough to win.”

They went from being a team that was getting booed on every incompletion or failed play in the first 25 minutes of the game to one the crowd was clearly behind the rest of the way.

Now, the question that must be asked is if they can carry any of the momentum gained from Monday night’s victory over to next weekend when they host Indianapolis?

Thus far this season, they haven’t been able to, as head coach Mike Tomlin likes to say, “stack wins.” They have alternated wins and losses. That won’t be good enough. That will get you 8-8 again, which likely won’t put them in the playoffs.

But, at least in this case, they didn’t “stack” losses.

F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.