The Pittsburgh Steelers blew their golden opportunity to stay in lockstep with the elites of the AFC for a push towards a possible first-round bye in the playoffs, but they remain in pretty good position overall. At 8-3, the Steelers are still going to exit Week 12 with the AFC North lead regardless of the results of Monday Night Football between the Baltimore Ravens and Los Angeles Chargers.
What grade do the Steelers deserve for their 24-19 loss? Probably not a great one, but CBS Sports were pretty generous with a ‘C’.
“There are no easy games in the AFC North and the Steelers learned that lesson the hard way on Thursday night. With snow falling in Cleveland, the Steelers just couldn’t come up with any clutch plays when they needed them,” John Breech wrote via CBS Sports. “Russell Wilson and the offense had a solid night, but Wilson also lost a fumble and there were two failed fourth downs that were costly. The Steelers also put the ball in Justin Fields’ hands on several big plays, a plan that backfired multiple times.
“The Steelers defense forced three turnovers in the second half, but they also let Jameis Winston dice them up for 72 yards in the fourth quarter. Coaching was also an issue: Mike Tomlin definitely deserves some blame for the way he handled the clock (and his timeouts) at the end of both the first half and the second half.”
It had the feel of a game where the players made enough plays to put themselves in position to win. Blame can be shared in all three phases, but I think the contributions of Tomlin towards the loss were the most troubling.
The Steelers misplayed their timeouts in both halves as bad as I’ve seen in the Tomlin era. By far the worst sequence was watching them accept a penalty on a failed third down play by the Browns to give them a do-over. Then, after all the confusion, the Steelers burned a timeout even though there was a significant stoppage in play. Then the Browns converted on the third down do-over to essentially secure the win.
If anything was done differently there, the Steelers may have had a chance to respond on offense. It would have been a 42-yard field goal attempt into the wind if the Browns opted to play it safe. Even if they made it, the Steelers would have had two timeouts and just under two minutes to respond with a field goal of their own. Or they could have had a fourth down opportunity to stop the Browns if they got aggressive to convert.
Either way, it’s important to keep in mind that the NFL is a league of parity. Just look at the results this week for a look at how many upsets can occur. The Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Commanders while the Tennessee Titans defeated the Houston Texans. The Carolina Panthers also came dangerously close to upsetting the Kansas City Chiefs.
There are worse losses than Thursday games on the road against divisional opponents in the snow.
