For the 1st time in franchise history, the Houston Texans are a wildcard team in the NFL playoffs. Another novelty: their playoff run doesn’t start on Saturday in the opening slot. Monday Night Football will see the Texans face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For those with really long memories, the Houston vs Pittsburgh playoff rivalry was a big deal during the Steelers initial Super Bowl era. Earl Campbell, Terry Bradshaw, Dan Pastorini, Jack Lambert. So many NFL legends went to war in those games.

Unfortunately for H-Town, the Steel City came out on top again and again in those...

Welcome to week 18’s edition of the Cyclone tracker! (The last one, shockingly, week one feels like yesterday.)

This is where we have followed our resident weather-themed duo in rookie receivers Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel, both out of Iowa State (hence, the “Cyclone” twins).

As always, there will be analysis, projections, commentary, and relevant updates that happen in real time.

Jayden Higgins, Jaylin Noel statistics vs. Colts

Jayden Higgins

Position: WR

Projected Week 18 storm path: 4.0 targets, 2.5 receptions, 35.5 yards, 1.1 TD, 12.5 fantasy points

Actual Week 18 path: 5 targets, 2 receptions, 23 yards...

Welcome to the final week of the Houston Texans Power rankings! Every year, the power rankings create an interesting chart of the greater football public’s thoughts on the Texans, almost like watching a stock ticker. Their gains and losses week by week mark the thoughts of those bullish and bearish on the Texans alike, and every inflection point tells a story. Out of all my years rounding up the power rankings and throwing my two cents in, this year was by far the most unpredictable.

With Houston’s last victory in the regular season finale against the Indianapolis Colts, they’ve reached...

Playoffs. We’ve made it. Houston will face Pittsburgh in the first round and the writers of Battle Red Blog each provided their thoughts and considerations immediately after hearing the Steelers stole a last-second victory over the Baltimore Ravens.

Provide your initial thoughts on Houston’s matchup against the Steelers in the Wild Card. What are you concerned about and where do you think the Texans have an advantage?

VBallRetired:

I just don’t think the Steelers offense challenges our offense enough. My main concern is the Steelers’ front seven against this Texans offensive line. The Steelers defensive line may wreak...

The Houston Texans, in partnership with Reliant, are providing the Texans faithful with a way to soak up the playoff energy. This coming Monday, January 12th, the Texans take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC Wildcard matchup at Heinz Field.

For those in H-Town, the team announced earlier today they will host a free watch party for the fans at NRG Stadium.

• Watch the entire game on the massive NRG Stadium videoboard
• Hear all the hits on H-Town’s best sound system
• Meet and Greets with Toro, Texans Cheerleaders and more
• Fan first deals on food...

After one of the most thrilling regular season finales ever, the Houston Texans have found their wildcard opponent in the 2025 NFL Playoffs: the Pittsburgh Steelers. For many Texans fans, this was the preferred matchup of all opponents in the playoffs since the Steelers seem to be the most compromised team, squeaking into the postseason via a missed field goal as time expired. But, for me, this matchup is uniquely difficult, given that I am a Texans fan living deep in the middle of Steelers country. I’ve grown up in Steelers country, my entire family supports the Steelers, and I...

As the top AFC Wild Card team, the Houston Texans must go on the road to face the Pittsburgh Steelers after they won the AFC North on Sunday Night Football. After that? Their path to the Super Bowl is completely up in the air.

This marks Houston’s first-ever playoff appearance as a Wild Card team; all eight of their previous postseason trips came as AFC South champions. That distinction instead belongs to the Jacksonville Jaguars, who have won the division for just the third time in franchise history. With that settled, the AFC playoff picture has fully taken shape. Few...

The Day After the Day After…when the raw, immediate emotions from the aftermath of a game diminish into the realm of clarity and the proverbial (or literal) hangover no longer haunts the mind. With that, a review of Week 18’s regular season finale:

A tale of two halves: With a slim chance for a home playoff game, Houston played most of its starters in a near-equal first half. However, if it seemed that Houston might be a bit distracted, it was because they kept one eye on the activities in Jacksonville. The Titans offered a brief glimmer of hope, going...

It’s playoff time! The most exciting time of the year, when we get rid of the pretenders of the NFL and get down to the teams that actually might get to the Super Bowl. As part of Wild Card Weekend, we get the Houston Texans, the #5 seed in the AFC, travelling to the Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers, the AFC #4 seed and winners of the AFC North. Set for a Monday Night kickoff, here is the opening line for the game:

HOUSTON: -3.5

As you can see from the link above, the sports bettors like Houston...

See, the thing about being a playoff team, which is what the Houston Texans are this year, is you have no idea what your draft pick is at the end of the regular season. Other teams are “lucky” in that respect that they don’t have to guess anymore. But this is the world we live in and we’re just gonna have to make the most of it.

To answer the question of where our first round pick is, I can simply answer, “I don’t know.” Nobody does yet. But the four letter network, bless their cold, dead hearts, have projected...

All football games have context. The context for this game blew up when the Jacksonville Jaguars defeated the Tennessee Titans 41-7 to clinch the AFC South division. A very sarcastic thank you to the folks from Possum Holler for showing up and playing a competitive football game there. It’s good to know they weren’t phoning it in (eye roll). At any rate, the Texans clearly were not trying their best because of those results, so it is hard to reach any conclusions from this game individually.

However, we always look at the numbers because the numbers themselves can tell us...

The Houston Texans 2025-26 regular season is over. So you know what that means.

What? No, not playoff coverage, that’s exactly what they’d expect us to do. No, we won’t go into the Texans current nine-game winning streak going into said playoffs. Instead, we’ll take a quick look at the list of opponents for next season! Next season the Texans will face the AFC North and NFC East, the second-place AFC schedule, and the Green Bay Packers.

Houston Texans 2026 opponents

Indianapolis Colts x 2
Tennessee Titans x 2
Jacksonville Jaguars x 2
Baltimore Ravens
Pittsburgh Steelers
Cleveland Browns...