The Steelers held serve at home in prime time on Monday night, fending off the Texans 30-23. The score looks good but it's probably best to hold off on getting too excited about Pittsburgh's prospects.

Pittsburgh was largely not very good for most of the game Monday. There was a brief stretch of time at the end of the first half, though, where the Steelers flashed their true potential as both an offense and a defense.

Aided by a slew of stupid Texans decisions, the Steelers scored a trio of touchdowns in 90 seconds, becoming just the first team in a decade to do so.

The party started with Martavis Bryant recording his first career catch in pretty impressive fashion: a deep touchdown from Ben Roethlisberger on Monday Night Football. 

Excellent concentration by Bryant there and stupendous work to get both toes down for the score. Dude even took a massive shot after the score and held onto the rock.

Two plays later, Arian Foster took a handoff up the middle and, quite innocuously, fumbled the ball on a play that resulted in a loss of three yards. No one really noticed he lost the ball but he sure did. 

Cue Todd Haley firing up a passing play for Antonio Brown and one left-handed bullet to the end zone later, the Steelers were suddenly leading.

On the very next play Ryan Fitzpatrick threw an interception to Brett Keisel, which really shouldn't be a thing you can do.

The Texans were so flustered they decided not to even bother covering Le'Veon Bell, who promptly scored two plays later.

If that seems like a lot of action in just 90 seconds, well, it was.

The Steelers put up 24 points or more in a three-minute span, the first team to do that since the 2002 Seahawks, over 3,000 games of football ago. 

See if you can guess, via Advanced Football Analytics, when this stretch of football happened.

This is the stuff that created high expectations for Pittsburgh this year. An explosive offense with weapons suited to Haley's scheme, one of the most versatile backs in the game in Bell, one of the game's best wideouts in Antonio Brown, a couple other potential breakout weapons and a revamped defense that could create turnovers.

It didn't happen for most of the first six weeks. And it really only happened for a small stretch on Monday. Expecting this to continue against a better offense -- like, say, the Colts! -- could be fool's gold.

Maybe this is a springboard for the Steelers season, but for the moment it just looks like a brief glimpse of their potential against an inferior opponent who had them pinned to the mat early.

Watt's New?

Not much for J.J. Watt. Breaking news: he remains spectacular. The Texans defensive end was ridiculous again, recording a pair of tackles, a sack and recovering a fumble.

The Steelers seemed to eliminate him for larger portions of the second half; the Texans were generally wiped out by the Steelers blitz in the second half. But just because Watt doesn't have massive stats doesn't mean he doesn't impact every single play.

A good example of his ability to impact a play without actually making the original play was on his fumble recovery. Watt pushed into the pocket, forcing Roethlisberger to step up and avoid pressure, and the Steelers quarterback walked right into Whitney Mercilus.

The result was a sack and a fumble recovered by Watt. He's the most fun defensive player in the NFL to watch and it's not even close. 

Weak Stomach

Lawrence Timmons is a very good football player but he either doesn't have the strongest stomach in the world or milk was a bad choice before the game. Because Timmons spent a large portion of the second quarter vomiting all over the field.


Via The Big Lead

Kudos to Timmons for continuing to play. Puke-and-rally isn't an option after 22 for most people.

Bill O'Brien Is Frustrated

MAN. O'Brien came out of the locker room and he was cheesed.

Asked if he's ever seen a team score as quickly as the Steelers did in the first half, O'Brien was calm ... but clearly simmering.

"I don't know," he said. "I've been coaching a long time. I don't know."

Asked about execution he got pretty warmed up, referring to a reporter by name and raising his voice a little.

"I mean, it was 30-23, Ryan. It wasn't FIFTY to nothing," O'Brien said. "My point is we can't do that. We can't turn the ball over. We can't field a kick. We can't bobble a kick. We can't give up shot plays. We can't have 12 men on the field on third down and give them a first down. We just can't do those things.

"And with all that being said we're an onsides kick away. These questions are like we lost 50-0. We lost by a touchdown."

And then someone asked him about looking at this game as a "positive." 

O'Brien's right on all this, but he's clearly pretty frustrated.

Buttfumble This Football!

Mike Tirico was discussing the Jets infamous "Buttfumble" game in the context of how quickly the Steelers flipped the momentum on the Texans. But he couldn't get "butt" off his mind during the opening kickoff of the second half and yelled "buttfumble this football" during Daniel Manning's first return.

TROY!

Just classic Troy Polamalu right here. It stops the clock but I'm fine with it because if it results in a huge play it's ballgame. The only downside of this play is half the distance to the goal, which really isn't much yardage.

Homefield Advantage

The Steelers have now won a ridiculous 16-straight home games on Monday Night Football.

Their last loss? October 14, 1991.

Fun EOF fact: the Steelers MNF streak began on October 19, 1992. During that game, they skunked the Bengals 20-0. Jim Breech, the father of our own John Breech, saw his 186-game consecutive-scoring streak end because of the Steelers.

Poor John had to suffer through reliving that horrible nightmare. Console him, he's full of tears.

Antonio Brown is a Bawse

And not just on the football field. LOOK AT THAT OUTFIT. 

Pretty sure he was wearing sockless loafers too, but I can't confirm. Either way, his outfit was as tight as his game.

Oh yeah and, you know, that touchdown pass. Which puts him into pretty good territory.

It wasn't all sunshine for Brown, though. He had a touchdown catch immediately after that ridiculous snag that was overturned on replay when it appeared he had a second foot out of bounds. He didn't appreciate the call by the refs.

Tuk Er Jahbs

Jon Gruden spent some time talking about Clemson wideouts, what with Bryant looking good and DeAndre Hopkins being generally awesome for the Texans. Add in Sammy Watkins and the Tigers are cranking out some good product.

Gruden joked about taking a job as a wide receivers coach there, which prompted actual Clemson wide receivers coach Jeff Scott to plan on hustling in to work tomorrow. 

That Moment ...

You're invited to be in the wedding party for a fall wedding.

And then that moment becomes nightmare fuel.