Brown's Belated Christmas Gift

Steelers 28 vs Browns 24 

 

Wow. I was not really looking forward to this game. Not because I thought the Steelers would easily beat the spread, but the only meaning it had was the sequestration of our players from injury. 

The Cleveland Browns seemed to be TRYING to lose this game.. as if the #1 pick in the 2018 draft was at stake (it's not).  Heartened as we were to observe just how deep our offense is, the defensive awfulness and why it hasn't shored up some of its major weaknesses is scary.

Although Landry Jones has been vilified by some in Pittsburgh, he proved himself a capable backup (have you seen some of the starters on several other teams?!).  Stevan "The Riddler" Ridley has provided De'Angelo Williams-like depth at running back. The offensive line was shuffled around a bit and gave good protection (with the exception of  Chris Hubbard receiving an in-game transfer to center).

How about JuJu's 95 yard kickoff return for a touchdown?!  The first since AB did it in his rookie year, 2010.  It was also the first time a player scored a TD off of a touchdown and kick return since the vaunted Gary "The Baller" Ballman demonstrated his gazelle-like capabilities in 1963. 

Themes Steelers have solid offensive depth The defense is sorely deficient for this playoff run Cleveland is a suicidal team 5 Pivotal Plays Corey Coleman's dropped pass JuJu's 95 yard kickoff return for a TD DHB revers for a TD Inability to score with 1st and goal from the Cleveland 4 Miles Garrett roughing the QB penalty

Check out the podcast to hear our positional grades.

We'll be back next week to break down our first playoff opponent. Please join us!