Week 7 Monday Night Football open thread: Houston Texans at Pittsburgh Steelers

AFC South meets AFC North tonight in the concluding game of week 7, as the 3-3 Houston Texans travel to face the 3-3 Pittsburgh Steelers at Heinz Field.

The Texans are second in their division, two games behind the 5-2 Indianapolis Colts, whom they lost to 33-28 in the week 5 Thursday night game.  Having fallen to the Dallas Cowboys 17-20 in overtime the week before, they'll be looking to avoid a third straight loss.

The Texans will also be hoping that first overall pick in the 2014 draft Jadeveon Clowney can go [inactives are out - he can't], to take advantage of the havoc that J.J. Watt has been capable of creating on his own; on the other side of the ball, Arian Foster is averaging 102 yards on the ground per game, though the Texans' passing attack is ranked only 28th and comes up against the 10th-ranked pass defense of the Steelers.

The Steelers have alternated wins and losses so far this season, most recently a 10-31 mugging at the hands of the Cleveland Browns.  With receiver Antonio Brown averaging 104 yards per game, expect Ben Roethlisberger to attempt to air it out against the league's 28th-ranked pass defense, though running back Le'Veon Bell (averaging 90 yards rushing per game) could also be in for a big game against the league's 22nd-ranked run defense.  Then again, the Texans' defense is ranked 4th in points allowed.....

Neither side face the NFC North this season and there's no real rooting interest either way (though Danieal Manning is the backup free safety and starting kick returner for the Texans).

Don't care?  Then what're you doing here, fool?  Open thread responsibly, sucka!