By Ray Porter Jr. for Urban Media Today
CLEVELAND, OH–Thursday Night Football hasn’t been very kind to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In the team’s history, they haven’t won a divisional road game on TNF in 76 years. Their last win came on Nov 23, 1950, vs. the Chicago Cardinals. They’ve been 0-9 ever since. And vs. Cleveland Browns in Cleveland, they are 1-6 since 2019, and 0-4 in that duration on Thursday Night Football. And when The Steelers faced the Browns in Cleveland this Thursday, the Steelers were hoping to end that infamous streak.
Unfortunately, the Browns had other plans as they stunned the Steelers 27-24 in front of a Thursday Night Football National TV audience on Amazon Prime.
“Frankly, I think that’s the National Football League. I think it is games with this level of intensity. I thought the environment tonight was outstanding,” said Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy. “It’s the best environment I’ve played in this stadium in my time in the league. I think once we settled in, we made some mistakes. We had some mistakes in all three phases. We definitely have to be better on the road. We’ve had two games on the road. You can go through the offense, defense, and special teams where there were breakdowns. I think my biggest disappointment that I expressed to the team would be, I just believe that you get what you emphasize in this league,”
After forcing the Browns to punt, the Steelers stormed down the field and made it 7-0 on a 12-yard TD pass from QB Aaron Rodgers to WR Roman Wilson. After that, it was all Browns as QB Deshaun Watson (24/33, 268 yards, TD, INT) led them on 3 consecutive drives that resulted in 21 unanswered points. The Steelers (2-2) never knew what hit them.
“I think it’s early. (Browns HC) Todd (Monken) is a very good offensive mind,” said McCarthy. “He’s done an excellent job in the league for a long time. He’s an established coach. They have weapons. I think they did a good job spreading the ball around. The backs ran hard. I thought they had a very balanced attack.”
Despite getting sacked 5 times, Rodgers (22/40, 299 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INT) and the Steelers fought hard and stormed back to tie the game at 24 late in the 4th quarter with contributions from RB Jaylen Warren (17 carries, 93 yards), WR DK Metcalf (5 rec, 115 yards) and Wilson (3 rec, 74 yards) but the Steelers defense couldn’t stop Watson and the Browns as they got into field goal range setting up a game-winning 56-yarder by K Andre Szmyt. The Browns are now 3-1 and are in sole possession of first place in the AFC North Division.
“We had some protection challenges. They did a good job up front. It was a five-man pressure, man-to-man game. They established that right from the beginning,” said McCarthy. “That’s the challenge that we went up against all night. It was herky jerky. When you play those games, it’s who is going to make the big play. You have to step out of tackles, you have to separate, you have to give him time to get through the progression. I think it was an aggressive game plan by them. I kind of expected some of it, but I thought it was a very competitive environment tonight, and we were one play short.”
Notes: The Steelers traded CB Joey Porter Jr. to the Dallas Cowboys for a 2027 6th round pick and a 2028 2nd round pick which ended an interesting period that resulted from both sides agreeing on a new contract in the offseason. “You never hope business gets in the way of your preparation and playing, but it’s the modern NFL. It was a situation where it’s been going on for some time. As an organization we felt like this was the best thing for us, and we wish Joey well. I never really got the chance to coach Joey. He obviously did some great things here and we wish the best for him in Dallas,” said McCarthy.
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