CLEVELAND — The team that was tied for the worst record in the NFL, had scored the second-fewest points in the league and was guilty of playing with all the intensity of a Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight did it to them again.
The franchise that has had four winning seasons and just one playoff victory since returning to the NFL in 1999 did it to them again.
The Cleveland Browns, who don’t seem to do anything right, did something right Thursday night — they halted the Steelers' five-game winning streak with a 24-19 victory and continued their spell against them along the shore of Lake Erie.
Whatever it is, the Steelers can’t seem to shake the jinx.
They are 1-5-1 in their past seven games in Cleveland and seem to lose any number of ways. This one, though, hurts a little more because of the way they had positioned themselves in the AFC playoff race.
“Missed opportunities,” defensive end Cam Heyward said. “They made more plays in the end.”
After impressive back-to-back victories against the Washington Commanders and Baltimore Ravens, the Steelers (8-3) took a step back and cooled all the talk about being Super Bowl contenders.
“We could have some head-scratching about what was displayed, but, man, just take it and move on,” Heyward said. “Everybody’s [upset] about the loss, but we got to learn from it.”
In a season of misery, the Browns (3-8) can now boast they’ve done something no other team can claim — they beat the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens in a four-week span of the season.
And they did it when running back Nick Chubb scored on a 2-yard run with 57 seconds remaining, two plays after quarterback Jameis Winston converted a 4th-and-6 at the Steelers 29 with a 15-yard completion to receiver Jerry Jeudy.
“Our guys fought, but it wasn’t enough,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “It’s painful, but it’s life in this business.”
On a night when Huntington Bank Field was turned into a snow globe, the Steelers battled back from an 18-6 fourth-quarter deficit behind Russell Wilson — and even Justin Fields — and took the lead when Wilson hit Calvin Austin III for a 23-yard touchdown with 6:15 remaining.
The touchdown was set up when outside linebacker Nick Herbig stripped the ball from Wilson on a sack, and safety DeShon Elliott recovered at the Browns 27.
It was an impressive performance by Wilson, who completed his first 10 passes and finished 21 of 28 for 270 yards and a 116.7 passer rating.
“We should have won that game,” Wilson said. “We felt like we battled. We fought our butts off. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
After Winston scored on a 2-yard scramble on fourth down to make it 18-6 with 12:16 remaining, Fields jump-started the comeback two plays later with a 30-yard run around the right side to the Browns 35. Two plays later, a roughing the passer penalty by linebacker Jordan Hicks on Fields moved the ball to the Browns 22.
That led to a 3-yard touchdown by Jaylen Warren to make it 18-13 with 7:57 remaining. That’s when it got interesting.
The Browns’ winning touchdown was set up when Corliss Waitman chunked a punt 16 yards to the Steelers 46 after Fields failed to get a first down on a three-and-out with 3:22 remaining.
Making matters worse, the Steelers decided to accept an illegal touching penalty on a Winston incompletion rather than force a 4th-and-2 at the Steelers 25. However, there appeared to be confusion about the penalty because the official initially signaled intentional grounding, as well, which is a loss of down.
That’s why Tomlin originally told the officials he would decline the penalty.
“I thought it was grounding initially,” Tomlin said. “When I realized it wasn’t ruled grounding, I got information from them and made the call I wanted to make. The distance was more important to us. We wanted to move them 5 yards back and make the field goal a longer one.”
It became a moot point when Winston, who passed for 219 yards, converted the 3rd-and-6 with a 15-yard completion to Jeudy. The Steelers got off to a fast start and had more yards (90-19) and first downs (3-0) than the Browns after one quarter. Nonetheless, after Chris Boswell missed only his second field goal attempt of the season from 58 yards, the Steelers could do nothing with the start.
That included Fields being stopped for a 2-yard loss on a 4th-and-2 play from the Browns 38 on the second series. Boswell eventually gave them a 3-0 lead with a 48-yard field goal early in the second quarter, but the missed opportunities caught up with them again.
On the next possession — after the Browns failed to have a first down for more than a quarter — they had five first downs, and Winston completed all six passes for 55 yards on a 12-play, 80-yard drive to take a 7-3 lead.
Then, after Wilson was stripped of the ball on a sack by defensive end Myles Garrett, the Browns turned that into a 34-yard field goal by Dustin Hopkins for a 10-3 lead with 40 seconds remaining in the half.
Wilson, who completed his first 10 passes for 128 yards, got the Steelers near midfield with a 19-yard pass to tight end Pat Freiermuth. But the drive stalled right there.
First Published: November 22, 2024, 5:53 a.m.
Updated: November 22, 2024, 6:31 p.m.