Hmm, what to do this week? Does anybody on the Pittsburgh Steelers deserve a make-believe game ball for their performance in the Week 4 loss to the Houston Texans? That's debatable, but thanks to the fine folks at Samsung sponsoring this series all season, we'll dig deep and find a winner.
When a defense fails to register a single sack or turnover, I think it's safe to say that nobody on Dick LeBeau's unit is deserving of the nod. What about on offense? Again, hard to find a stand-out candidate from a game in which the offense only mustered 10 points.
That said, I don't think we need to feel too bad about handing out the fictitious hardware to Antonio Brown for his efforts in defeat. The second-year wide receiver had 5 more receptions for 67 yards. Three of those catches came in succession on the Steelers' lone touchdown drive of the game. For the season now, Brown has 15 catches for 223 yards. 11 of his 15 receptions have gone for first down yardage, and impressive stat. With just one more catch, Brown will match his rookie season total of 16. He's already surpassed his receiving yardage totals from 2010 (167 yards), as well as his first down receptions (10). As I mentioned on Monday, it might not be in Ben Roethlisberger's best interest to be targeting Brown so often while the offensive line struggles so mightily, but on those occasions when the protection has held up and Roethlisberger has been able to get the ball down field to No. 84, the results have certainly been solid.
Also worth noting is Brown's performance in the return game. He took his lone punt return 33 yards to the Texans 48 yard line late in the fourth quarter, a bigtime return that put Pittsburgh in position to potentially engineer a game-tying drive. It, of course, wasn't meant to be.
All told though, yet another sound 60 minutes of football from the guy I labeled the tenth best draft pick (excluding 1st rounders) in the Kevin Colbert era.