In yet another clear example of being a second-half team, the Pittsburgh Steelers shook off a poor start Sunday against the Cleveland Browns and cruised to a 27-14 win at Acrisure Stadium to improve to 10-3 on the season.
Without standout receiver George Pickens due to a hamstring injury, the Steelers’ offense was slow to get into gear while the Steelers’ defense got off to a slow start as well. But thanks to two missed field goals by Cleveland and a strong second half on both sides of the football, Pittsburgh was able to race out to a 27-7 lead in the third quarter, eventually putting the game away to end the Browns’ miniscule chances at the playoffs.
QB Russell Wilson bounced back with a solid second half while Scotty Miller got a helmet for the first time in two games due to Pickens’ injury and made a big play. Pat Freiermuth found the end zone for the second week in a row, and Jaylen Warren gave the Steelers a real spark in the run game.
Defensively, Alex Highsmith returned to the lineup and dominated while Cameron Heyward had a two-sack game, continuing to build a great case for another first-team All-Pro accolade.
Let’s get to some grades.
QB — B-
It was rather ugly early for Russell Wilson as he struggled to connect with anyone in the passing game with Pickens out. The Steelers had no answers in the first half in the passing game as nobody was able to win on their routes, leading to Wilson either throwing the ball away or trying to scramble and extend plays.
His numbers at the half were ugly, and he missed on some throws, too, including an early one to Mike Williams that was uncatchable after Williams won on his route and got behind the defense.
In the second half, though, Wilson settled in, hitting Freiermuth for a gain of 21 yards on a play in which he broke out of the pocket and threw on the run, extending the play before a big-time conversion. He also fired a dart to Van Jefferson for a 10-yard touchdown and later hit Mike Williams on a back-shoulder dime for 22 yards before hitting Freiermuth for a 20-yard touchdown up the seam to put the game out of reach.
Later, he made a great throw to Scotty Miller for a gain of 21 on a fade route down the left sideline for a 3rd-and-7 conversion. The numbers in the end — 15-for-26, 158 yards and two touchdowns — aren’t all that great. But Wilson shook off a slow start and made plays in big spots, much like he did in his first start against the Jets in Week 7.
It was good enough in a winning effort.
RB — B
Najee Harris ripped off a 20-yard run early in the game, but things slowed down for him after that as the Browns were attacking downhill and bottling up the Steelers’ top running back.
That’s when Jaylen Warren emerged on a day when the Steelers desperately needed him. Warren was a significant spark for the Steelers’ run game, being shot out of a cannon time and time again, running hard and really putting stress on the Browns’ defense.
Warren had a huge 14-yard run in the third quarter, helping set up Jefferson’s touchdown. He bounced off defenders all game and looked like a bowling ball with legs. Warren finished with 47 yards on nine carries in the Steelers’ 10th win of the season. He added two receptions for 25 yards, making some plays on checkdowns.
Harris finished with 53 yards on 16 carries and had a first-half touchdown, but he was largely bottled before ripping off a 9-yard run on 3rd and 5 to seal the win.
WR — C
It was a bit of a frustrating day for the receivers without Pickens. Nobody could consistently get open, leading to some difficult passing attempts for the Steelers.
Mike Williams made some big plays, though, including his 22-yard gain on a back-shoulder throw from Wilson that Williams snagged with one hand and got both knees down inbounds for the explosive play. Williams had another big play wiped out by an offensive pass interference call in which he pushed off, though he didn’t know how it was OPI in the end.
Williams had three receptions for 36 yards in the win.
Scotty Miller was the story of the day at receiver, hauling in three passes for 38 yards, including a 21-yard catch down the left sideline in which he dragged both feet inbounds to convert on 3rd and 7. He struggled to get open throughout the game, which led to some difficult throws from Wilson, but Miller made the big play in the end and stepped up in a huge way.
Van Jefferson was left wide open on his touchdown, though it was a great route by him on the RPO. That was his second TD of the season. Calvin Austin III had just one catch for four yards and didn’t seem to be on the same page with Wilson when targeted.
TE — B-
For the second week in a row, Pat Freiermuth found the end zone, this time on a 20-yard route up the seam in which he cooked Browns safety Grant Delpit and got inside leverage for the score. Freiermuth also had a huge 21-yarder earlier in the third quarter on a third down to move the chains, making a difficult contested catch with a defender draped all over him.
Darnell Washington had a sound game as an extra protector in the passing game, often being lined up on the same side to chip Myles Garrett, who was quiet until late in the game. Washington had just one target in the game. MyCole Pruitt had an early target as well, but it went for -1 yards and led to a Steelers punt.
OL — C
For the most part, I thought the offensive line was solid against the Browns, continuing how they played in the second half of Week 12. The Steelers held Myles Garrett without a sack until late in the fourth quarter. That came on a play in which it was largely blocked well between Dan Moore Jr. and Isaac Seumalo before Wilson ran into the sack.
Outside of that, the Browns really didn’t get to Wilson much. The Browns had just seven QB hits on the afternoon.
The run game wasn’t working all that well as Cleveland really packed the box and attacked downhill. Most of the yardage from the backs was hard-earned as Cleveland really handled things well at the line of scrimmage. But the Steelers’ OL helped put the game away late on the ground, which was very encouraging.
DL — B-
Just a few days after being named the Steelers’ Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee, Larry Ogunjobi got off to a great start with three first-half pressures. But then he was lost for the game with a groin injury.
With Ogunjobi out, Cameron Heyward took over. Heyward had two sacks, five tackles and was a force throughout the game. He dominated his matchup against Joel Bitonio just a few weeks after Bitonio got the better of him in Cleveland.
Keeanu Benton had a strong game with his first NFL interception. He had just one tackle, but I thought he played well against the run and generated a pass rush at times. That said, the defensive line was thin without Ogunjobi and the Browns ran the ball well, averaging 4.2 yards on 25 carries as Nick Chubb, Jerome Ford and Jameis Winston had some success on the ground.
LB — B+
Welcome back, Alex Highsmith! In his return from an ankle injury, Highsmith had six pressures, a sack, and three tackles, playing the run well after missing the last three games. He was outstanding right from the jump.
T.J. Watt had a huge TFL on the first play from scrimmage but after that was a bit quiet. He had three pressures on the afternoon but was held without a sack. He did have four tackles and played the run well.
Nick Herbig played around 40% of the snaps in a reduced role with Highsmith back and didn’t have a huge impact as he was held off the stats sheet.
Inside, Patrick Queen had some missed tackles, but he was solid in coverage with a key pass breakup on David Njoku, and he played the run well with 13 tackles. Elandon Roberts had a great TFL on a fourth-down play, forcing a turnover on downs, too. That guy thrives attacking downhill.
Rookie Payton Wilson was around the football a ton, too, finishing with four tackles and a tackle for loss. Nice day overall for the linebacker room.
DB — C+
At times, it felt too easy for the Browns. Fortunately, it only resulted in 212 passing yards.
Minkah Fitzpatrick and Donte Jackson lost Jerry Jeudy on a 35-yard touchdown on the Browns’ second drive of the game. That has been a common occurrence in recent weeks, even with that being the longest touchdown pass the Steelers have allowed this season.
Fitzpatrick had five tackles, and his best play might have been drawing a personal foul penalty on Browns LT Germain Ifedi. Still waiting on that splash from Minkah. It’s coming. He’s doing his job well for the most part, outside of the Jeudy TD.
DeShon Elliott had one heck of a game, finishing with a team-high 13 tackles. He was around the football constantly. He was sound in coverage, too, but did allow Njoku’s late touchdown, which was an insane catch by the Browns TE.
On the boundary, Donte Jackson left much to be desired again while Joey Porter Jr. had a bad personal-foul penalty for retaliation. That said, he locked down Jeudy when he was on him. Porter finished with six tackles, too. Beanie Bishop Jr. moved back into the slot corner role and played 58 snaps compared to 13 for Cameron Sutton.
Bishop finished with six tackles.
Damontae Kazee nearly made a great play early by jumping a route on a pass intended for Njoku, but he dropped what should have been an interception. A few plays later, Jeudy scored.
Nice to see James Pierre catch the football this time, taking advantage of a bad throw from Jameis Winston late in the game for an interception. That but put the game on ice.
Special Teams — B
Another great day for Chris Boswell. What else is new?
Boswell drilled both field-goal attempts on the day, including one from 54 yards. It was fitting that he was money while the Browns’ kicker missed both field-goal attempts.
In the punting game Corliss Waitman did a nice job, averaging 52.3 yards on six punts. He did have a bad 38-yard punt early in the game but bounced back in a huge way. He uncorked a 60-yard punt to flip the field and a 58-yard punt late that Kadarius Toney muffed to give the Steelers the ball and ice the game away.
For the second time on the year, Ben Skowronek recovered a fumbled punt. He’s been very good as a gunner and it’s nice to see him rewarded with the late-game fumble recovery.
Kick coverage was a mess, though, as the Steelers missed a couple of tackles on Jerome Ford’s 56-yard kickoff return to start the second half. Need to clean that up moving forward.
