Brownies and Frownies from Browns big AFC North victory over Steelers on TNF

Browns take down AFC North leading Steelers on Thursday Night Football

There was a sports radio show this week in which the host stated that the upcoming contest against the division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers was like a big brother always picking on their little brother. The content indicated that the Steelers was the older brother who did nothing but abuse their younger sibling the Cleveland Browns.

Which is basically the truth. Except for a playoff win a few seasons ago, Pittsburgh had taken the Browns to the woodshed repeatedly. Since the Browns entered the NFL again in 1999, the Browns have won only 11 games and tied once. Considering these two teams play each other twice a year, 36 games is a ton of losses.

This year, these two clubs are going in opposite directions. The Steelers are 8-2-0 while Cleveland is 2-8-0. Despite being a Browns home game, Pittsburgh is very good this year and just beat the Baltimore Ravens, one of the league’s best defensive rosters.

Here is a weird stat: Pittsburgh head coach Mike Tomlin is 0-7 on the road on Thursday Night Football games and 2-8-0 overall. However, he is almost unbeatable on Monday Nights.

On Thursday Night Football with a limited Prime Network audience and a game-time temperature of 32 degrees with hints of snow, the Steelers came roaring back to go up by one only to have the Browns win 24-19.

So who played well for the Browns? Who didn’t?

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BROWNIES

S Grant Delpit – The play of the game was on the fourth-and-two early in the game. The Steelers offense was moving, but sputtered and a short pass made it fourth-and-two. Instead of a long field goal attempt, Pittsburgh pulled their starting QB Russell Wilson and put in their running signal caller Justin Fields. Delpit split two blockers and nailed Fields for a two-yard loss as he attempted to turn upfield.

Early in the second quarter, Delpit saved a touchdown as WR Calvin Austin hauled in a 48-yard bomb down to Cleveland’s 25. Two plays later Delpit punched out the ball from RB Najee Harris which should have been a Browns recovery but was regained by the Pittsburgh offense. The 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty midway through the fourth quarter was just plain stupid. If he wanted a mouthpiece, we here at Dawgs By Nature could have run down and handed him one. Led all tacklers with 10.

QB Jameis Winston –

• With 3:01 before halftime, Winston had to step out of the pocket to his right after almost being sacked. With his head still downfield, he found Elijah Moore for a nine-yard gain instead of a huge loss to the 22-yard line on the first play after the fumble recovery.
• With 1:36 left before halftime on a second-and-13, he was pressured but remained in the pocket and then sent a bullet to Moore.
• What a great pass to TE Blake Whiteheart in their third quarter to put Cleveland into Pittsburgh’s zone.
• Perfect pass to TE David Njoku early in the fourth quarter for what should have been a touchdown.
• The next play, after almost being sacked twice, his twisting scramble found the end zone as the Browns went up 18-6 after a successful two-point conversion.
• An absolute dart to WR Jerry Jeudy with just four minutes to play to get Cleveland closer into field goal range before being intercepted at the 21-yard line.
• Great vision to Jeudy with less than two minutes to play. Was 18 on 27 attempts for 219 yards, an 8.1 yards per completion average, and a 76.0 QB rating. Nice work.

DE Myles Garrett – On Pittsburgh’s first possession, DT’s Dalvin Tomlinson and Shelby Harris performed a stunt that pushed the center of the offensive line backward. As Steelers QB Russell Wilson was forced to step out of the pocket, he ran right into Garrett on the right side for the game’s first sack. On the 48-yard bomb to Austin, Garrett was a nano-second away from another sack.

What a great paw stretch from Garrett to force the fumble in the second quarter as he beat OT Dan Moore, Jr. On the last play of the first half, DT Dalvin Tomlinson and Garrett ran a stunt to which Garrett had a direct lane to Wilson for yet another sack. What a dominator. Had five tackles.

Fourth down plays: offense & defense – RB Nick Chubb went through a perfect hole on a fourth-and-one with 4:53 left before halftime to move the sticks on a good drive from the 15-yard line to the 11 behind blocks from OG Joel Bitonio and C Ethan Pocic. Earlier on defense, Delpit nailed Fields for a loss in the first quarter. The fourth-and-six with just over one minute before halftime allowed the Browns to run off valuable time before a successful field goal attempt instead. Great strategy. Another fourth-and-one defensive stand early in the third quarter shocked the Steelers’ offense as DT Mo Hurst beat his block to the inside and planted RB Jaylen Warren with help by LB Jordan Hicks for a loss in Pittsburgh territory. On the first play of the fourth quarter, a fourth-and-inches became another first down at Pittsburgh’s 25-yard line holding a 10-6 Cleveland lead.

Stopping the run – Pittsburgh has a good running attack, just not against Cleveland. First-half stats were just 38 yards in the first half as the center of the defense was simply plugged. The interior with Harris, Tomlinson, and Hurst along with MLB Jordan Hicks was pivotal.

Prime Network CG crew and stadium groundcrew – As the TV screen became more and more cloudy with the amount of snow that blanketed the playing surface, the Prime crew created dark stripes for the home audience to see the yard lines, the goal line, the back of the end zone line, marked all of the hash marks, plus blackened the yardage numbers. Unfortunately on the field, the players couldn’t see squat. Expected to see the New England snow plow come out at some point but the stadium groundcrew did what they could to reveal various lines.

Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images

Defense – The defense rose to the occasion the entire game. After the interception that ended a good drive into Steelers territory with four minutes left in the game, all Pittsburgh had to do was convert two first downs and the game was over. Instead, the defense stepped up big time and forced a three-and-out. Then a 15-yard punt placed Cleveland in Pittsburgh’s 45-yard line right off. That gave the Browns at least one last opportunity to score or go home and ask “What if?”

WR Jerry Jeudy – The catch inside the two-minute warning was an amazing catch and converted a third-and-seven. Had several key first-down conversions despite the weather conditions. Caught each of his six targets for 85 yards.

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FROWNIES

CB Denzel Ward – Ward’s responsibility was to cover the elusive George Pickens, yet the talented receiver bested Ward for most of the contest. In the first quarter alone, Pickens converted a third-and-six with 6:10 left in which he never even looked back at the ball. It would have been a batted pass or a pick if he did. As Pickens was fumbling to get control of the ball on his descent, Ward did not attempt to get a hand in and help Pickens lose control. Ward missed a tackle early in the game and again early in the third quarter. He allowed Pickens to snare another first-down pass on the last play of the first stanza. Later, CB M.J. Emerson took over the coverage of Pickens. On the Fields’ 30-yard run early in the final quarter, Ward’s missed tackle attempt took out his own man Delpit. Had five tackles.

Third down conversions – The Browns are the worst at converting third downs in the league. That continued tonight as Cleveland was 0-4 in the first half and 1-10 for the game. Did not matter the down and distance, it was just the same ole.

WR Cedric Tillman – The fumble after the big gain in the third quarter killed a lot of momentum the Browns had built up. Ball protection with both hands is a must in the open field as the player knows contact is about to happen. On the last play of the third quarter facing a third-and-five, Tillman ran a three-yard route and was stonewalled with a hard hit at the Steelers’ 26-yard line. What? The offense needed five yards and Tillman crossed after only going three yards? Just 28 receiving yards.

Protecting the lead – You would think an 18-6 lead with just over 12 minutes to play in a snowstorm would favor the team with the huge lead. Not the Browns. It began with the Fields’ 30-yard scamper. The Delpit unsportsmanlike penalty placed Pittsburgh on the doorstep and the following play they scored with a successful PAT. Then OT Germain Ifedi watched his man DE Nick Herbig blow right past him and force a fumble. It didn’t take long for the Steelers to score and take their first lead 19-18 (after a failed two-point attempt). Then the Browns tossed a pick as they were driving into field goal range with just 4:22 left in the contest.

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Milk Bones – How come you never see a headline like ‘Psychic Wins Lottery’?

DT Shelby Harris – The first Steelers play was Harris jumping over the attempted block by TE Darnell Washington and then nailing RB Najee Harris for a one-yard loss. As the first quarter was winding down, it was the stunt by Harris and Tomlinson that forced QB Wilson out of the pocket for the Garrett sack. Had four tackles.

Stadium wind conditions – One of the Browns’ favorite sons, K Phil Dawson installed a flag in the west end zone that will tell each kicker what the current wind conditions are. The formula was given to him by a government sniper who told him to take the angle of the flag and divide it by four. Thank goodness Steelers’ kicker Chris Boswell doesn’t know the formula because he had only missed one kick all year yet missed wide right a makeable 58-yard field goal with the wind in the first quarter. The Dawson formula would have told Boswell to hook the kick major left so that it would drift toward the right.

OT Germain Ifedi – Thrown into being the starter for the second week, Ifedi played well against DE Nick Herbig for most of the game. He did have the false start with 1:36 before halftime that forced the Browns into a second-and-13. He completely whiffed on Herbig in the fourth quarter to force Winston to fumble at their own 27-yard line. Three plays later the Steelers went ahead.

LB Winston Reid – A special teams ace, he is getting more defensive snaps because of his hitting. In the first half, he pounced on the Wilson fumble. The impressive part was there was a ton of traffic in the area and instead of trying to scoop-and-score, he simply jumped on the ball thus making a certain recovery. Nice decision. Midway in the third quarter he almost had an interception when Tomlinson accosted Wilson who made an erratic pass that came inches from being a pick. Reid also makes an exceptional fullback except for his penalty on the two-point conversion inside the two-minute warning.

Cleveland home crowd – The temp at game time was firm at 32 with a slight snow. Going into the third quarter, the sky opened up and it was firmly a snow game with Cleveland holding a 10-3 lead. The crowd did not care that the Browns were a two-win team and came prepared with multiple layers for a frozen game and just rolled with it. Being ahead against your biggest rival for most of the game helped. Despite the mess the sky provided, did anybody leave?