On Friday night the Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off the preseason against the Houston Texans. The Texans had the advantage of having an extra game under their belts and it showed. The Steelers struggled in all three phases and despite a late rally by the team's reserves, Pittsburgh lost 20-12.

Pittsburgh now turns its attention to the Buffalo Bills in what will be the team's most important preseason game. Since going to a three-game format, Week Two is the game where we will see the bulk of the starters play the most snaps.

After having a chance to go back over the game, here are some big takeaways from Friday's game.

Wasting time at quarterback

Third-string quarterback Kyle Allen got nearly three-fourths of the snaps at quarterback. Evaluating Allen is a non-issue and having him in there doesn't do the skill players trying to make the team any favors.

Backup running backs show up

The highlight of the offense was the play of backup running backs Jonathan Ward and Diajun Edwards who both had rushes of 20 yards.

Nothing from the tight ends

Arthur Smith's offense is supposed to highlight the tight end position but we didn't see that on Friday. Tight ends were only targeted three times.

Payton Wilson is going to be special

It took no time at all to see that linebacker Payton Wilson is going to be a special player. He led the team in tackles and is really going to push Elandon Roberts for reps.

Dynamic kickoffs were anything but dynamic

Maybe once the regular season rolls around we will see something special but the dynamic kickoff returns were completely underwhelming on Frida night.

This article originally appeared on Steelers Wire: Steelers vs Texans: Big takeaways from Friday's preseason game