ESPN The Magazine: Texans vs. Steelers featured throughout 11/28/11 Issue

[Keith]

If you are not a subscriber to ESPN the Magazine (or an ESPN.com Insider subscriber), you may want to look into picking up the latest issue. It devotes much of its pages to all things related to the Texans home game against the Steelers (One Day - One Game).

Here's a snippet of one article that looks at the game planning:

...Texans defensive coordinator Wade Phillips started watching film on the Steelers last spring, when players were locked out. "We had a little more time on our hands," he says. Phillips is 64 and in his 36th year coaching in the NFL, his first with the Texans. Kubiak, a backup QB in Denver when Phillips was the Broncos defensive coordinator, hired Phillips to improve a defense that always seemed to collapse under pressure.

Back in the spring, the Steelers appeared to be the type of pound-the-ball team the Texans struggle against. But the 2010 Steelers that Phillips watched months ago bear little resemblance to the 2011 version. Injuries to the offensive line have sapped Pittsburgh's ground game. Now it's a passing team, so Phillips has whittled the Steelers' game plan to three essential, pass-specific components:

• Contain speedy receiver Mike Wallace.
• Pressure QB Ben Roethlisberger by overpowering Pittsburgh's patchwork O-line.
• Prevent Big Ben from escaping the pocket. His size -- 6'5", 241 -- makes it a tough task.

Phillips decides that cornerback Johnathan Joseph will be assigned to Wallace on every play, man or zone, except when the receiver is in the slot, where a safety will cover him. It's a risk putting single coverage on the opponent's top threat. But that tactic gives Phillips one more man to send into the pocket -- and the quicker the Texans can pressure Roethlisberger, the less time Joseph has to cover Wallace. "It's a big matchup," Phillips says. "But Joseph's up to it." ...

http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/s...-steelers-game
(you probably need to be an Insider subscriber to take this link)