The Cleveland Browns are fresh off a huge Week One victory over the Cincinnati Bengals while the Pittsburgh Steelers are trying to figure out what happened in yesterday’s ugly loss to the San Francisco 49ers. That’s reflected in the early Week Two lines, the Browns opening up as one-point favorites despite being the road team for their upcoming Monday night matchup.
That’s the early line per CBS Sports via Sportsline, making it the second straight week the road team is the favorite over Pittsburgh. The San Francisco 49ers were slight road favorites for yesterday’s game and blew that line out of the water, comfortably winning 30-7. The only team that looked worse than the Steelers yesterday was the New York Giants, destroyed 40-0 by the Dallas Cowboys in the Sunday night game.
The Browns took care of business in their opener, upsetting the Bengals 24-3. It was a dominant win, holding QB Joe Burrow to just 82 yards, completing barely 40 percent of his passes, and sacking him twice. The Bengals were held to 142 yards of total offense and went a terrible 2-for-15 on third down. On the other end, Browns RB Nick Chubb continues to produce, rushing for 106 yards and getting more involved in the passing game. QB Deshaun Watson spread the ball around and rushed for a touchdown while defensively, DE Myles Garrett was in the Bengals’ backfield all day, finishing with four quarterback hits and a sack.
For the Steelers, nothing went right. The offense didn’t register a first down until late in the first half and QB Kenny Pickett had one of the worst games of his career, only boosting his stats with garbage-time inflated numbers. Pittsburgh barely possessed the ball in the first half and the defense struggled to get early stops. Their run defense faltered, and they couldn’t cover WR Brandon Aiyuk, who carved them up for well over 100 yards receiving and two touchdowns.
It’s too early to call Week Two a “must-win” game but the Steelers dropping to 0-2 and losing to an AFC North foe, while being defeated in their first two home games of the season, would be disastrous. It would be another hole the Steelers would dig themselves to climb out of, something they’ve gotten all too familiar with in recent years. But a win over Cleveland would halt the “sky is falling” feeling with the team and quickly right the ship, putting the Steelers back into the AFC North conversation.
Pittsburgh and Cleveland kick off next Monday at 8:15 PM/EST on ESPN.
