As so often in the past, the Steelers imposed their will on the Browns this Sunday, and nobody could attest to that better than Jerry Jeudy. Cleveland’s top wide receiver, he and others did not appear comfortable by the second half. Former Steelers and Browns CB Joe Haden spotted that and discussed the matter on his Deebo & Joe podcast.
“Going into halftime, our Steelers were smacking the Browns coming across the middle”, Haden said to former Steelers teammate James Harrison, the Deebo in question and his co-host. Despite his affected usage of “our” here, Harrison antagonizes him for his Browns allegiance. Harrison, of course, goes the other way despite playing for other franchises.
“There were some alligator arms that started coming into effect. Man, he hit my man [David] Njoku in his heart, and I didn’t know if he was gonna get up”, Haden said of the Steelers’ physical play over the middle against the Browns. “Lost his wind and everything.
“He came back in the game, but then Jerry Jeudy, on some of them, he was coming across the middle, [QB Dillon Gabriel] was throwing some of those passes, and you see them dudes looking at the safety instead of looking at the rock a couple of times. I think the Steelers banging, hitting out there was making some of them arms get a little short, getting a little tight looking for the rock”.
Anybody who watched the Steelers play the Browns saw exactly what Haden describes. As the game progressed, on multiple occasions, we saw Browns receivers hesitate to make plays. This goes back to one of the most infamous quotes Harrison ever made. “I try to hurt people. I don’t want to injure anyone”, he once said. What he wanted to do was to break players’ spirit and make them not want to play. He wanted backs to not want to run between the tackles, for receivers to not want to go over the middle. He wanted to see those alligator arms.
And on Sunday, for perhaps the first time all season, the Steelers looked like that defense against the Browns. Even though Cleveland somehow ran 75 plays, it averaged just 3.3 yards. And the Steelers didn’t even take the ball away, dropping numerous potential interceptions.
But they made the Browns look like they were done, holding them to three field goals. On one drive, Cleveland ran 18 plays but netted just 49 yards. The Steelers still have work to do on defense, but they’ve brought the physicality and imposition back. At least, they managed to do that while playing the Browns—and the Bengals are up next.
