Snoop Dogg thinks Todd Haley took his advice

The Pittsburgh Steelers' offense improved their red-zone efficiency to 40.91%, and is no longer next-to-last in the NFL.

Whom do the Steelers have to thank for their recent climb in that statistic? Maybe it's Mike Tomlin for calling the reverse pass that led to the Antonio Brown-to-Lance Moore touchdown. Maybe it's Todd Haley for switching up the play-calling, or maybe it's Ben Roethlisberger for making better decisions inside the Texans' 20-yard line.

An alternative to all those theorems would be that the legendary rapper, Snoop Dogg, had an influence over how Todd Haley called the plays on Monday night. That's at least how it came off from Dogg's statements when he was on Tuesday's NFL Access show.

"Things look like they're getting on a good foot," Snoop said, according to nfl.com's Mike Coppinger. "[Haley] looked like he was listening to me. He's starting to put Ben (Roethlisberger) in control running that hurry-up offense, so we lookin' pretty good against the Texans, and the Texans got a pretty good defense, so I was pretty excited about the win."

Though the idea Snoop's Instagram rants had an impact on Haley's preparation to play the Texans is about as doubtful as the prospect of Landry Jones throwing a touchdown pass this week, the offense did put up more points than it had during the previous two games combined.

The issue still remains that the offense only managed to score three field goals outside of their 73-second run of three touchdowns. The defense did show signs of improvement after giving up a long touchdown drive on the Texans' first possession. But it still stands that, if the Steelers want to be able to make the playoffs, the offense will have to improve its overall production and continue to score in the vicinity of the 30-point performance they put up against the Texans.

Snoop Dogg sees the Steelers' as a playoff contender, and maybe he's right. But his confidence in the team's chances to beat both the Indianapolis Colts and the Baltimore Ravens over the next two weeks is probably not shared with the majority of Steelers fans that have watched this team fight to be 4-3.

"That's easy. Andrew Luck? We got him, and we already know how to take care of the Ravens -- we get them twice a year -- so we'll be all right," Snoop said when asked about the team's chances at the playoffs. "We need to get on a good foot offensively and let our defense keep click clackin' -- and I like the way we looked on defense, too."

As the Steelers prepare to host Andrew Luck and the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, they know their opponents are currently the NFL's best offense with the best yards-per-game average and the best points-per-game average. Taking that into account, the offense is going to have to be prepared to put up their best performance of the season, if the team wishes to have it's longest only winning streak of the season.