Houston Texans: Week 7's HOH Golden Bull Award Goes To...

The Houston Texans were featured along with the Pittsburgh Steelers for their third appearance on Monday Night Football a couple of days ago.

All signs were pointing to the Texans coming into Steel City charging with the rage the toughest bull is known for.

History has been on Steelers side — they haven’t lost a Monday Night Football game at home since 1991 and Ben Roethlisberger was 5-0 at home in prior prime time action as well.

I was hopeful that the Texans were going to buck that trend.

It didn’t quite go down that way.

I was extremely impressed starting out in regard to how the Texans’ players on both sides of the football were able to take care of business.

Oct 20, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Houston Texans running back

Alfred Blue

(28) scores on an eleven yard touchdown reception against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Ryan Fitzpatrick was leading productive drives, Arian Foster and Alfred Blue were running the football effectively. Blue even got his first career touchdown in the first quarter — to which I jumped up and cheered in jubilation!

I knew it was eventually going to happen but he did in such graceful fashion — slicing through the defense and stepping into that coveted end zone.

The ball was spread around through our top wide outs — Andre Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins — and even Garrett Graham and C.J. Fiedorowicz were used for a bit.

The defense was clicking on all cylinders — regularly getting to Roethlisberger to take him down and stall their offensive schematics.

It had been the best first quarter start that I had seen in a long time and I was grinning from ear-to-ear, I thought they were well on our way to a blowout victory.

It seemed almost too good to be true.

Unfortunately, it was.

Oct 20, 2014; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) throws a pass under pressure from Houston Texans defensive end

J.J. Watt

(99) during the second half at Heinz Field. The Steelers won the game, 30-23. Mandatory Credit: Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports

Things started to go downhill midway through the 2nd quarter starting with a touchdown drive led by Big Ben to rookie Martavis Bryant, the first TD catch of his career. He had been seldom used throughout the season but paid big time dividends for the Steelers on that play.

But the turning point during this same drive was the missed tackle by Brian Cushing to allow Le’Veon Bell to rush for 28 yards. This was, in my opinion, the momentum-shifter and it got the Steelers’ crowd on their feet!

It got worse with forced fumble off a Foster carry late before the end of the half to which he was originally ruled that he was down — but the review of the play reversed that call and the Steelers received the ball within striking distance of another scoring opportunity.

They took advantage of it because the ball was on the Houston third-yard line.

The defense totally was completely bamboozled by a Big Ben pass to Antonio Brown to which Brown then made a short three-yard pass to Lance Moore.

I put my head in my hands after that play.

That drive only took seven seconds to complete and it only took that one trick play.

There was no turning back whether it was a interception thrown by Fitz, blown coverages, mishaps on the special teams front, or additional fumbles forced.

Even Troy Polamalu came back to life with one late in the game for crying out loud!

I just sat there and watched everything that the Texans had built up fold quicker than a cheap tent.

But there was one player that remained consistent and did his job dutifully.

Because of this, excellence deserves to be recognized — we started at the beginning of the season and on that type of basis continuously, we will honor an individual player that made the most impact in helping the team, despite whether it resulted in a win or a loss.

We’ve dubbed it House of Houston Golden Bull Award…

And this week’s Golden Bull Award goes to…

Randy Bullock!

I’m usually hard on Randy because he was so darn bad last season but he did get it together and has been virtually money ever since.

When the offense would stall and eventually a three-and-out would occur, there would be trusty Randy ready to go out and do what he is paid for.

He had close to half of the team’s points scored for the game; and, quite honestly, he kept us within striking distance when things were going bad.

For that, I think he deserves to be recognized.

So take a bow Randy.

I’m not sure what you did in the off season but keep doing it!

I’m also positive that the team chef is taking extra care of you to make sure that your demands are met as well!

Houston Texans: Week 7’s HOH Golden Bull Award Goes To…

By Brian K. Patterson | Oct 22, 2014