Top stats to know: Texans-Steelers on MNF

The Houston Texans have lost two straight games after starting the season 3-1, and tonight they visit the 3-3 Pittsburgh Steelers, who lost to Cleveland last week and have alternated wins and losses through six games. Here's what you need to know for "Monday Night Football" (8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN).

Longest Home MNF Win Streaks

		Years
Steelers	15*	1992-pres.
Raiders	12	1970-85
Eagles	9	1980-94
Dolphins	9	1980-86
* Last loss: 1991 vs. Giants

Steelers strong on Monday night
Since 1992, Pittsburgh has won a record 15 consecutive Monday night home games, last losing to the Giants in 1991.

Coach Mike Tomlin is in his eighth season with the Steelers, and he is 7-2 on Monday night. Only Jim Harbaugh (6-0) has a higher win percentage on Monday night among active coaches.

The Texans are 3-4 on "Monday Night Football," winning their most recent appearance in Week 1 last season at San Diego.

Watt is the problem
To borrow a baseball phrase, Texans defensive end J.J. Watt is filling up the box score this season with eight tackles for loss, a league-high five batted passes, four sacks, two fumbles recovered, an interception and even a blocked extra point.

Most Batted Passes Since 2011

J.J. Watt*	31
Connor Barwin	24
Calais Campbell	19
Jason Pierre-Paul	18
* Entered NFL in 2011

Watt had three batted passes last week, tying a single-game career high. His 31 batted passes since he entered the NFL in 2011 are seven more than any other player.

And oh yeah, Watt has three touchdowns this season, tied for second on the team behindArian Foster with five. Watt is the only player in the past 50 years to score a touchdown via a fumble return (45 yards), an interception return (80 yards) and a reception (one yard) in a single season.

Rampant running backs
Both lead running backs are having strong seasons, as Pittsburgh's Le'Veon Bell ranks second in the league with 542 rushing yards, just ahead of third-place Foster (513 yards).

Foster

Bell

Bell trails only DeMarco Murray in rushing yards and is behind only Murray and Matt Forte in yards from scrimmage. Bell has recorded at least 100 scrimmage yards in his first six games this season, joining Murray as the only players to accomplish that.

For Houston, Foster has rebounded from an injury-plagued 2013 season to rush for 100 yards in four of his five games this season, scoring a pair of touchdowns in each of his last two games.

Through six weeks, Foster has carried the ball more than 21 times per game, ranking second in the league behind Murray (26.7).

Record-setting receivers
Pittsburgh's Antonio Brown has at least five catches and 50 receiving yards in an NFL-record 22 straight games. The previous best streak was 19, held by Laveranues Coles, and the second-longest current streak is T.Y. Hilton at five.

Johnson

Brown

Houston's Andre Johnson is coming off season highs in receptions (seven) and yards (99) last week against Indianapolis.

That game made Johnson the 15th NFL player with over 13,000 career receiving yards. With 13,080 yards, he is nine behind Steve Largent for 14th on the NFL's career list. Johnson is 118 yards behind Andre Reed for 13th place (and most among players named Andre).

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Top stats to know: Steelers 30, Texans 23

The Houston Texans jumped out to an early 13-0 lead on the Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday night. The Steelers then rode a late first-half surge to a 24-13 lead at halftime. After the Texans held that early lead, they were outscored 30-10 for the rest of the game. 

The Steelers are now 8-2 on "Monday Night Football" under Mike Tomlin, and the Texans have lost three straight after a 3-1 start to the season. 

The difference in the game was the quick 24 points the Steelers posted late in the second quarter, leading to their 16th straight "Monday Night Football" victory, the longest streak in the history of the franchise. 

Steelers strike quickly 
Pittsburgh scored 24 points in a span of 2:54 to completely change the momentum of the game. They had scored 27 points over their previous two games combined. 

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time an NFL team scored 24 or more points in less than three minutes was in Week 4 of 2002, when the Seattle Seahawks posted 28 points in 1:47 against the Minnesota Vikings. 

The Steelers are the first team to score 21 points in the final two minutes of a half since the Texans in 2012 Week 1 (21 in first half versus Miami Dolphins). Furthermore, they are the only team in the past decade to score three touchdowns in the final 90 seconds of a half. 

Killer B's attack for Steelers 
Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown was a jack-of-all-trades, catching nine passes for 90 yards and adding his first career touchdown pass for good measure during that 24-point surge at the end of the first half. 

At Least 9 Receptions & 1 Pass TD
Single Game in NFL History

	Player	Team
Monday	Antonio Brown	Steelers
1995	Jerry Rice	49ers
1984	James Wilder	Buccaneers
Source: Elias Sports Bureau

According to Elias, Brown is the third player in NFL history with at least nine receptions and a touchdown pass in a game, joining James Wilder (1984) and Jerry Rice (1995). He also extended his NFL-record streak of at least five receptions and 50 yards to 23 straight games. 

With two touchdown passes, Ben Roethlisbergerhas at least 10 in each of his first 11 seasons. That ties Jim Kelly for the fourth most such seasons to start a career in NFL history. 

Roethlisberger completed 23 passes, and 17 of them were either to Le'Veon Bell or Brown. He was 8-for-8 for 88 yards and a touchdown targeting Bell, who eclipsed 100 scrimmage yards for the seventh consecutive game this season. Bell joins DeMarco Murray as the only players with at least 100 yards from scrimmage in each of their team's games this season. 

Other notable tidbits 
Not to be forgotten was another outstanding effort from J.J. Watt. Watt had a sack and a fumble recovery on Monday, marking his third such game this season. No other player had more than one such game. Additionally, his fumble recovery was his NFL-leading third of the season. 

With 77 receiving yards, Andre Johnson moved passed Hall of Famer Steve Largent for 14th on the career receiving yards list.

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Giants infield 'd' has been pretty good too

 
USA TODAY Sports/Getty ImagesPablo Sandoval and Brandon Crawford have been valuable for their defense this postseason.

The Kansas City Royals outfield defense has gotten a lot of press, and rightfully so, for its outstanding work this postseason. 

Highest Out Rate on Grounders/Bunts
Regular Season

Athletics	76.2%
Giants	76.0%
Mariners	75.1%
Pirates	75.0%
Reds	75.0%
Dodgers	75.0%
* MLB average: 73.1%

But let’s not forget about the infield defense of the San Francisco Giants. 

There may not be any Gold Glove candidates among the quartet of Brandon Belt, Joe Panik,Brandon Crawford and Pablo Sandoval, but the Giants infield has been among the best in the majors this season. 

The Giants were one of only four teams this season to get positive Defensive Runs Saved contributions from each position in the infield, along with the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Redsand Colorado Rockies. 

During the regular season, the Giants turned 76 percent of ground balls and bunts hit against them into outs, the second-highest rate in the league (three percentage points above the major-league average) 

In the playoffs, they’ve upped that to a 78 percent out rate. Here's how each of their infield defenders has excelled. 

3B Pablo Sandoval 
Forget Sandoval's girth, as it's not pertinent to his play on the defensive side this season. Sandoval improved from -5 Defensive Runs Saved in each of the last two seasons to a positive contribution of four Defensive Runs Saved. 

What's notable about Sandoval is how often he makes plays compared to how often he errs. 

Most Good Fielding Plays at 3B
2014 Season

Josh Donaldson	Athletics	77
Nolan Arenado	Rockies	64
Pablo Sandoval	Giants	60

Baseball Info Solutions tracks every batted ball and categorizes them as Good Fielding Plays (about 30 different types of Web Gem-caliber plays) and Defensive Misplays & Errors (60 categories, which we'll simply refer to as "Bad Plays"). 

Sandoval's ratio of Good Plays to Bad Plays was 2 to 1 in 2014 (60 to 30). That was second-best among all third basemen, trailing only Josh Harrison. He's made his share of good ones this postseason. 

SS Brandon Crawford 
Crawford may not be Atlanta Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons, but he rates as one of the sharpest shortstops in the majors. 

Crawford ranked seventh among shortstops during the regular season with eight Defensive Runs Saved. He also had the third-most “Out of Zone” plays(plays outside areas in which a shortstop turns at least 50 percent of balls into outs) with 83, one more than Simmons. 

That’s probably why no one was surprised that Crawford stuck with the ground ball that deflected off Pablo Sandoval and was able to get an inning-ending forceout in a key spot in the ninth inning of Game 5 of the NLCS. 

2B Joe Panik 
Panik’s strength is the double play. He converted 79 percent of double play opportunities (man on first, less than two outs) in which he was either the fielder or pivot man, the highest rate among major-league second basemen. 

Highest DP conversion rate
2B in 2014

Joe Panik	Giants	78.7%
Jonathan Schoop	Orioles	78.1%
Kolten Wong	Cardinals	74.7%
* Minimum 50 opportunities

In the playoffs, he’s been an out-getter, looking better than his numbers. He's played 99 innings and handled 39 chances without making an error (and converted six double plays). 

In fact, the Giants have done a terrific job at gobbling up balls hit to the right side. They've turned 54 out of 61 grounders and bunts hit to the right side (defined as right of the second base bag) into outs (89 percent). The Royals, by comparison, have converted 43 of 53 into outs (81 percent). 

That's a credit both to him and to the guy playing first base, who we'll get to next. 

Brandon Belt 
Belt hasn't put up super numbers at first base, but he's been consistent. Over the past three seasons, he has 12 Defensive Runs Saved. He rates adeptly at covering ground both down the line and in the hole. And in the postseason, he's handled difficult throws without issue. 

This is important because ... 
The Giants infield will be tested against the Royals. Kansas City hitters ranked sixth in the majors this season in ground-ball frequency. 

And the Royals have had a lot of success on ground balls this postseason. They've reached at the equivalent of a .320 batting average when hitting the ball on the ground. The Elias Sports Bureau notes that their 15 infield hits this postseason are one fewer than all the rest of the postseason teams combined. The Athletics, Angels and Orioles couldn't stop them. We'll see if the infield playing the best defense in the playoffs can do any better.

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Top stats to know: FSU 31, Notre Dame 27

Jameis Winston remains unbeaten and has top billing on this list.

The Notre Dame–Florida State matchup was billed as one of the best games this season. 

It lived up to its billing in a big way, and once again, Florida State prevailed. 

The teams were never separated by more than one score, and Florida State got the last and decisive score to win 31-27. 

The history 
Florida State won its school-record 23rd straight game and its sixth in eight meetings with Notre Dame. 

Florida State has won three straight games versus AP top-five teams for the first time since 1999-2000. 

This was the first time Notre Dame lost a game it entered unbeaten and was playing in the regular season against the defending national champ (4-1-2 in those games all time). 

The loss snapped an eight-game Notre Dame winning streak in games decided by six points or fewer. 

The Fighting Irish fell to 2-6 all time against Florida State, their worst record against any team they’ve played at least five times. 

Winston does it again 
After a rather unimpressive first half, Jameis Winston was fantastic in the second half, completing 15 of his 16 pass attempts for 181 yards and a touchdown. 

Winston was 2-of-6 on throws of 10 or more yards downfield in the first half, 9-of-9 on those passes in the second half. 

Winston improved to 20-0 as a starting quarterback with the win. 

That’s the longest win streak to start a career for any FBS quarterback in the past 15 seasons, one better than Alabama’s Greg McElroy. 

Lose the yardage battle, win the game 
Notre Dame outgained Florida State by 147 yards, the worst yardage margin for Florida State in any game under Jimbo Fisher (since the start of the 2010 season). Losing the yardage game is generally not a recipe for success in college football, but the Seminoles are 3-2 under Fisher when getting outgained by at least 100 yards. 

One of the reasons Notre Dame outgained Florida State by so much was the play of quarterback Everett Golson. 

Golson had his third game this season with at least 300 passing yards (he’d had only one prior to this season). He threw two touchdowns to Corey Robinson, who’d never had a multi-touchdown game before Saturday. 

The Irish offense was slowed in the second half, scoring only three points in the final 22 minutes. Notre Dame had the potential game-winning touchdown wiped out by a penalty in the final seconds. 

Golson fell to 16-2 as a starting quarterback. This was the first regular-season loss of Golson’s career.

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