Things didn’t go all that well on Thursday night for the Pittsburgh Steelers as they dropped an ugly 24-19 game to the Cleveland Browns, raising some questions about the team moving forward.
But there were some strong individual performances that had a major impact on the game — on both sides of the football.
While those performances didn’t lead to a win, it was still impressive to see some members of the Steelers step up in a major way.
Second-year outside linebacker Nick Herbig led the way for the Steelers from a Pro Football Focus grades perspective. On his 23rd birthday, Herbig graded out at a 93.7 overall on the night, which was by far the highest grade of any Steelers player in the primetime game.
Herbig generated four pressures, a sack, a forced fumble and had three run stops against the Browns. He was a force throughout the night and made a game-changing play for the Steelers in the fourth quarter with his strip-sack of Cleveland QB Jamies Winston. That set up the go-ahead touchdown on a pass from Russell Wilson to Calvin Austin III to make it a 19-18 game.
Herbig’s play earned him PFF’s Player of the Game award.
“Even in a losing effort, Steelers EDGE Nick Herbig put forth a tremendous effort, as Herbig benefitted from all the attention paid to T.J. Watt. As a pass rusher, Herbig finished with a team-high 26.3% pass-rush win rate, three pressures, one sack, one forced fumble and two pass-rush wins that didn’t result in a pressure,” PFF writes. “Herbig wasn’t a one-trick pony either, as he made a tremendous impact against the run as well, totaling three stops and an assist.”
Herbig was very good on the night, making an impact throughout it. It wasn’t enough though as the Steelers couldn’t finish the game and dropped to 8-3 on the season.
Along with Herbig, the highest-graded Steelers players in the top five include QB Russell Wilson (79.9), LB Payton Wilson (79.9), TE Pat Freiermuth (79.0), and WR Calvin Austin III (76.2).
Wilson earned a grade of 79.9 overall from PFF, including a 66.9 run grade thanks to his 10-yard scramble in the second half that nearly moved the chains. Wilson had three big-time throws too and had just one turnover-worthy throw. He did have a bad fumble in the pocket, getting a bit loose with his ball security, which cost the Steelers.
He was also sacked four times and had a 3.01 average time to throw.
It’s good to see that some of Wilson’s weapons like Freiermuth and Austin graded relatively well, too. Freiermuth finally had a bigger role in the offense and finished the game with four receptions for 59 yards.
He saw some targets in the middle of the field and took advantage of some matchups. Freiermuth had 23 yards after the catch on the night, with 45.2% of his snaps coming from in the slot. He also had three of his four catches go for first downs.
Austin had a pair of big plays in the loss, hauling in a 46-yard pass from Wilson in the first half and then making a big-time contested catch in the end zone on the 23-yard go-ahead touchdown. He had just seven yards after the catch, but Austin was one-for-one on contested catches and averaged 25.7 yards depth of target, far and away the most for the Steelers.
On the defensive side of the football, Payton Wilson had another strong game in PFF’s eyes. Wilson had six tackles, graded out at a 79.9 overall, and was sound in coverage, too. Wilson was charged with just one reception allowed on two targets for just four yards. He also added three run stops and was around the football quite a bit in the poor conditions.
It’s a shame that some of the strong individual performances came in a losing effort because they were pretty impactful. That said, it’s concerning to see the likes of S Minkah Fitzpatrick (48.2), CB Joey Porter Jr. (46.3) and NT Keeanu Benton (38.9) at the bottom of the list defensively in PFF grades, not to mention guys like guys like TE Darnell Washington (54.5), RG Mason McCormick (50.8) and TE Connor Heyward (29.8) near the bottom of the list offensively.
