{"id":671525,"date":"2026-01-12T13:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/671525\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T13:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:52:14","slug":"how-texans-can-beat-steelers-in-wild-card-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/671525\/","title":{"rendered":"How Texans Can Beat Steelers in Wild Card Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Houston Texans<\/a> are back in the playoffs and will head out on the road to Acrisure Stadium to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round.<\/p>\n

For the first time in franchise history, the Texans are qualifying for the playoffs as a wild card after being the AFC South champion in their past eight appearances. Failing to win the division against the Jacksonville Jaguars forces the Texans to travel to Pittsburgh for a tough match against the Steelers. While the Texans have a shot to win, they have find ways to get the best of one-on-one matchups on the offensive side of the ball.<\/a><\/p>\n

“When the Texans have the ball in the low to high red zone (the goal line to 25-yard line), they should see heavy man coverage from Pittsburgh’s defense (69.8% of coverage snaps this season). This Steelers have held opposing quarterbacks to a red zone completion percentage under 50% in man coverage this season but have given up 18 touchdown passes there — eighth most in the league,” ESPN analyst Matt Bowen wrote.<\/p>\n

“This is an area of the field where Houston can look for favorable matchups using formation and alignment. We know wide receiver\u00a0Nico Collins\u00a0can isolate from multiple spots on the field, and I would look for in-breaking concepts with the ball in the low red zone. Plus, rookie\u00a0Jayden Higgins\u00a0has shown a strong catch radius in the end zone this season.”<\/p>\n

What happens next for the Texans? Don’t miss out on any news and analysis! Take a second and\u00a0sign up for our free newsletter and get breaking Texans news delivered to your inbox daily!<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Houston<\/p>\n

Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins participates in early pregame warmups against the Las Vegas Raiders. | Troy Taormina-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Texans Should Have Concise Game Plan vs. Steelers<\/p>\n

On top of finding these mismatches on offense, they have to do everything they can to make Aaron Rodgers’ job difficult. This could be Rodgers’ final game in the NFL, so they have to send him to retirement with a matchup that will want him to stay on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

“Rodgers wants to get the ball out quick, as he leads the league in average time to pass this season (2.59 seconds). He is going to target the underneath out\/flat areas of the field, as 31.5% of his throws this season were on short out-breakers. Rodgers likes to take the speed outs and benches, while targeting running back\u00a0Kenneth Gainwell\u00a0on quick arrows or flats,” Bowen wrote.<\/p>\n

“Here, the Texans can take those throws away with scheme and the talent they have at cornerback. By playing more Cover 2, both\u00a0Derek Stingley Jr. and\u00a0Kamari Lassiter\u00a0(assuming he’s healthy) can patrol the flats. This should eliminate Rodgers’ ability to take the quick outs while also positioning a safety over the top of wide receiver\u00a0DK Metcalf, who is returning from a\u00a0two-game suspension.”<\/p>\n

If the Texans can execute these plans on offense and defense, they should be well on their way to victory with a spot in the Divisional Round with their name on it.<\/a><\/p>\n

Be sure to\u00a0bookmark Houston Texans On SI<\/a>\u00a0and follow\u00a0@TexansOnSI<\/a>\u00a0on X for daily Houston Texans news, interviews, breakdowns and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Houston Texans are back in the playoffs and will head out on the road to Acrisure Stadium…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2056],"tags":[7,221,253,2368,6,222],"class_list":{"0":"post-671525","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-texans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-texans","11":"tag-houstontexans","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-texans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115882462295231116","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}