You could feel it in the air. The excitement had been building all week. The weather was perfect. The most important game since 1999 they said. But with the Browns, there's always that feeling. That feeling that the other shoe is about to drop. And why shouldn't we be nervous? Ben Roethlisberger was 18-1 against the Browns. The Steelers had won 27 of the past 32 meetings since 1999, including that awful playoff loss in 2003. We've seen just about everything go wrong that could go wrong, we've been let down before. So yeah, with the excitement of the game there was that nervousness that accompanies any hope for these Browns. But not this Sunday, not these Browns. This day was Cleveland's. This day belonged to the Browns. And it wasn't a nailbiter. There was no last minute heartbreak in the offing. Nope. This day, the Browns took the fight to their old nemesis, the bully that had beaten them up and down over and over. They took the fight to them and kicked their asses. The Steelers, with their aging stars, their suspect defense, their sex predator quarterback, turned tail and ran back down the turnpike after a thorough beating. AND IT WAS AWESOME. The Browns whooped the Steelers 31-10 in front of the home crowd.
It was a big win. It was in the division and it was a home game. So yeah it would have been important if it was Baltimore or Cincinnati. But this was a big one psychologically. The Browns, as discussed before about Baltimore, needed to beat Pittsburgh to announce that they aren't a punching bag anymore. That the trash that had been going on for the past 15 years wasn't going to happen again. They failed that test against Baltimore. They found a way to lose. But Sunday they had a mulligan, got a redo. Another opportunity to announce their legitimacy. And they took full advantage. This wasn't the win in the freezing cold in a lost season under Eric Mangini. This wasn't the escape against Charlie Batch when they forced 8 turnovers and barely managed a victory. This was a legit big game victory against their rival. They dominated up front on offense. They found ways to get off the field on defense. And they played mistake free special teams. And that my friends will win a lot of football games.
The Steelers plan was clear from the beginning. They were going to run the ball and wear down a thin defensive front that was missing some key players. The plan looked like it was going to work for the first quarter. But the bend but don't break Browns held the Steelers to a field goal made and a field goal botched, and then the offense got going, and they never looked back. The Browns scored on three straight drives in the second quarter, and Pittsburgh never recovered. Brian Hoyer had perhaps the best 8-17, 217 yard 1 TD performance I've seen in my lifetime. He was completely in command of the offense. His pass to Jordan Cameron on the second Browns touchdown was a thing of beauty. Just enough air to get it over the oft out of position Troy Polamalu and just out of the reach of Cortez Allen. It was a beaut. He was outstanding. Brian Hoyer is better than I ever thought he could be, and I'm really glad to be wrong about him. He's now 6-2 as a Browns starter.
Kyle Shanahan called another gem of a game. The success of the running game makes play action passing incredibly effective. And the Browns had success running the ball. They averaged 4.2 yards per rush on their 38 runs, but that average is brought down by a fourth quarter where they were just running out the clock. Ben Tate and Isaiah Crowell ran hard behind an offensive line that is as good as any offensive line in the NFL. Losing Alex Mack will hurt. A lot. I will admit I've been hard on old Alex. But he is really great in this scheme and his injury is going to hurt. It's clear by the reaction to the injury how respected he is by his teammates. But they were still able to run the ball after his injury, and that is part scheme and part running back talent on this team. Crowell needs to hold onto the football but he and Tate played very well. And lets be honest the Steelers defense is not that good. In the 6 quarters against Pittsburgh after that abysmal first half in the opener the Browns have outscored the Steelers 55-13. That is not a fluke. That is one team being better than the other.
Defensively this was the best the Browns have played all year. They had multiple contributors missing and were still able to limit what the Steelers were able to do. They bottled up LeVeon Bell, and mostly contained Antonio Brown. They seemed to dial the pressure down a bit, which helped take some heat off Haden and Skrine, both of whom played pretty good football. The strategy seemed similar to the Saints game, giving up a little on the ground and playing more coverage. But the best thing the defense did was tackle, they tackled better than they have all season. There were not too many free yards for the Steelers, they earned what they got which wasn't much. And not for nothing but Todd Haley is an idiot. I have no idea why he would run the ball on first and second downs, get into third and short, and pass, but hey...
But this was a team win. The whole team seemed to play well, they beat the Steelers in just about every facet of the game. And what matters is that they are now 3-2, with an extremely soft next few games. They have a chance to make some noise in the AFC. And man will this offense look nice with Josh Gordon, and that day is coming. But the biggest takeaway from this win is that they are finally a better team than the Steelers. This is the beginning of the Browns time, the Steelers time has past. And those frontrunning fairweather fans know it. There seemed to be a lot less black and gold in the crowd than usual. And they made the sad walk this time, marching out to joyful barking. This Browns team took a big step, and it was awesome.
Random gifs
Poor Purdue
Jeremy Hill busted out the Ickey Shuffle and it was awesome
Rodgers hit em with the Kosar special fake spike (ask Marino it was Kosar's idea)
Bonus pic umm buddy are you seriously taking a picture of that cheerleaders ass on the sideline like a creep? Yeah you are......
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