2 weeks Ago By Tim Benz
I don’t want to hear the Pittsburgh Steelers’ excuse machine Friday morning. I don’t want to hear about a short week on the road. I don’t want to hear about the weather.
I don’t want to hear how tough it is to play in Cleveland. I don’t want to hear about the schedule-makers or “Hard Knocks.” I don’t want to hear about the officials.
OK, actually, the officials were hot garbage as usual. That complaint I’ll take. But everything else? Put a cork in it.
The 8-3 Steelers shouldn’t have lost to the 3-8 Cleveland Browns on Thursday night. But they did. And now that drops the franchise’s record to an illogical 1-5-1 in their past seven games in Northeast Ohio.
If you want to be taken seriously as an AFC contender with Kansas City and Buffalo, that’s a game you don’t lose. But the Steelers did, by a final of 24-19. So here is this week’s “Airing of Grievances.
” There are a lot of them, so l et’s just start sequentially. False start The first quarter was a disaster offensively. The first drive was incredibly aggravating.
The Steelers got to a 3rd-and-1 from their own 44. They brought in Justin Fields at quarterback. I liked the idea.
Especially after the runs he had last week and because of what New Orleans’ gadget guy Taysom Hill did to the Browns last week. But if you are going to shuttle the quarterbacks in and out, don’t slop it up. The Steelers did.
When Fields came in, Darnell Washington got a pre-snap penalty, and the Steelers were moved back five yards. Fields went back to the sideline, and Russell Wilson came back on the field. Fortunately, Wilson completed a good-looking throw to Pat Freiemuth for 22 yards.
But the ensuing drive ended when Myles Garrett blew through Jaylen Warren and Dan Moore Jr. for a third-down sack of Wilson. Chris Boswell came on for a 58-yard field goal.
Under normal circumstances, fine . On the first drive of this game, though, with the wind and snow in Cleveland, it was a completely unnecessary risk and a heavy ask for Boswell. He missed it, and the Steelers gave away field position.
The second drive started after a Damontae Kazee special teams penalty and a Connor Heyward false start on offense. It collapsed when they threw a typical Steelers short-of-the-sticks pass for four yards on a 3rd-and-6. Then they tried to put Fields in once more on fourth down and screwed it up again.
They got the play in late, barely got the snap off, the blocking was a mess, and Fields was tackled for a loss of two yards on 4th-and-2 from the Cleveland 38. The goal of using Fields was supposed to be to confuse Cleveland. All it seemed to do was confuse the Steelers.
• Steelers' George Pickens: 'I don't really think the Cleveland Browns are a good team at all' • After outshining Steelers' T.J. Watt, Browns' Myles Garrett proclaims himself 'No.
1 edge defender' in NFL • Tim Benz: It's not 'How do the Steelers keep losing in Cleveland?' It's 'Why haven't they been able to fix the problem?' Not much better The second quarter was even worse. It began with an offensive drive that stalled at the Cleveland 30 and resulted in a field goal. The Browns responded by holding the ball for nearly seven minutes, going 80 yards over 12 plays for a touchdown.
The Steelers’ defense generated zero negative plays on that drive. It got the Browns to a third down just once, stopped them, then allowed a Nick Chubb fourth-down conversion. Chubb punched it in two plays later.
On the ensuing drive, Wilson fumbled. The Browns turned that into a field goal. It was 10-3 at halftime in favor of Cleveland.
Tough day for team T.J. This week, Garrett requested an apology from T.
J. Watt for his negative reaction to the Defensive Player of the Year trophy award this offseason. Well, in order to give that apology, Watt would’ve had to actually show up before halftime.
He sure didn’t on Thursday night. Watt ended the game with four tackles, one for a loss, no sacks. Three of those tackles which came after halftime.
This was after a week of hearing how allegedly inept the Browns’ offensive tackles were from Steelers fans and media members. Meanwhile, Garrett was a force. He posted three sacks and a forced fumble in the first half.
Moore has occasionally held his own when trying to block Garrett in the past . Thursday was not one of those nights. The only apology Watt needs to make is to anyone who thought he might actually have a sack during Thursday’s game.
Terrible day for Tomlin Almost every decision Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith made blew up in their faces. The call to have Boswell try the 58-yard field goal was a lousy tone-setter. The Steelers also failed on two decisions to go for fourth downs in the first half.
The attempts to use Fields backfired until his fourth-quarter run of 30 yards. Then they made the bizarre call to have Fields throw a ball deep on a 3rd-and-4 from their own 30-yard line late in the game up 19-18. If you want to throw in that spot, put Wilson back in to throw.
For some reason, leading up to Cleveland’s late-second-quarter field goal, Tomlin held onto his last timeout on defense , so he could use it on offense. But they got the ball back with just 40 seconds left and didn’t end up using it. In the fourth quarter, after the Browns were penalized for an illegal touching call, the Steelers burned their second timeout.
They were up 19-18 at the time with just under two minutes left and likely were in need of as many timeouts as possible, whether the Browns kicked a field goal or scored a touchdown. After the penalty, Tomlin eventually elected to accept it, moving the Browns back for a 3rd-and-7 snap instead of what would’ve been a 4th-and-2, with Cleveland likely trying a 43-yard-field goal. If they had made it, Pittsburgh would’ve gotten the ball back with more time and down only two points.
Instead, the Browns moved the chains. Chubb would go on to score a touchdown to make it 24-19, so the Steelers needed a touchdown with 57 seconds left and just one timeout. They didn’t get it.
But wait, there’s more Here are just a few more odds and ends. • Up 19-18, the Steelers had a crucial two-point conversion try. They lobbed a 50-50 ball to Cordarrelle Patterson, of all people.
It went incomplete. There should’ve been a pass interference flag, but it was still a strange decision. • The officials swallowed the whistle on three non-pass interference calls (two on George Pickens and the other on Patterson) and (maybe) a roughing the passer call on the last play.
Every one of them would’ve impacted the game significantly. • If the officials adjudicated that illegal touching call properly, I have no idea how that rule is on the books the way it is. How is an offensive lineman allowed to intentionally bail out what should be a 10-yard intentional grounding for a 5-yard illegal touching? Shouldn’t both violations also carry a loss of down too , instead of just grounding? If they do, why wasn’t it assessed? • The Steelers hit three passes of over 30 yards, and Fields ran for 30 yards on one play.
Yet the offense still only ended up with 19 points. • The Steelers’ so-called “elite ” defense also allowed a 10-play, 65-yard touchdown jaunt from the Browns in the third quarter. Not a single big play was made by Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, Cam Heyward or anyone else to quell it.
The team had one sack all night. • Coordinator Teryl Austin’s unit also allowed 14 points to Jameis Winston and the Browns in the fourth quarter and yielded 304 yards in a snowstorm. It may have been 9-for-10 on third down stops, but the group was 0-for-4 stopping fourth downs.
• It was a rare bad day for the special teams. Corliss Waitman had a terrible punt after Fields’ deep incompletion to set up Cleveland’s last possession. Kazee had that early penalty, and Boswell actually missed a kick.
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