{"id":824018,"date":"2026-03-20T23:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824018\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T23:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T23:16:10","slug":"how-to-watch-2025-26-nfl-wild-card-steelers-texans-on-espn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/824018\/","title":{"rendered":"How to watch 2025-26 NFL wild card: Steelers-Texans on ESPN"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2025 NFL playoff field is set, and a highly anticipated wild-card round awaits. The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a>, after clinching the AFC North in dramatic fashion and earning the No. 4 seed, wrap up the first weekend of postseason play by hosting the fifth-seeded Houston Texans<\/a> in a playoff edition of “Monday Night Football.”<\/p>\n

Four-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl XLV champion Aaron Rodgers<\/a> gets a crack at another Super Bowl and gets his top target, wide receiver DK Metcalf<\/a>, back when the Steelers take on a Texans squad that enters the postseason on a nine-game winning streak following an 0-3 start.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh is 5-3 against Houston all-time, but the two teams have never played in the playoffs. The Texans defeated the Steelers 30-6 in their most recent meeting in Week 4 of the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

Here are key facts about the playoff “Monday Night Football” showdown:<\/p>\n

What is the schedule?<\/p>\n

*All times Eastern<\/p>\n

Monday, Jan. 12<\/p>\n

3 p.m.: “NFL Live” on ESPN<\/p>\n

6 p.m.: “Monday Night Countdown” on ESPN<\/p>\n

8 p.m.: Texans at Steelers on ESPN and ABC<\/p>\n

8 p.m.: “NFL Wild Card with Peyton and Eli” — the “ManningCast” — on ESPN2<\/p>\n

8 p.m.: “NFL Wild Card Playbook with Next Gen Stats” on ESPN Unlimited<\/p>\n

How can fans watch?<\/p>\n

Fans can catch all of the action in the ESPN App and in the NFL streaming hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

‘NFL Wild Card Playbook with Next Gen Stats’<\/p>\n

“NFL on ESPN Playbook with Next Gen Stats” returns for ESPN’s wild-card and divisional round playoff games. The two remaining editions of “NFL on ESPN Playbook” will be available for fans with a subscription to the ESPN Unlimited plan in the ESPN App.<\/p>\n

Designed for viewers who crave deeper insights, “NFL on ESPN Playbook with Next Gen Stats” delivers real-time data, advanced metrics and analytics-driven commentary, powered by the NFL’s Next Gen Stats and Adrenaline’s TruPlay AI. Fans will consume the game with a 22-man, all-field camera view, as “NFL on ESPN Playbook” taps TruPlay AI’s unprecedented live predictive engine that is capable of adjusting to personnel, formations and pre-snap movement in real time.<\/p>\n

How can fans access more NFL content from ESPN?<\/p>\n

Check out the ESPN NFL hub page<\/a> for the latest news, analysis, scores<\/a>, stats<\/a>, schedules<\/a> and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 NFL playoff field is set, and a highly anticipated wild-card round awaits. The Pittsburgh Steelers, after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,6,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-824018","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116264054643855712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824018","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=824018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}