Five things we learned about the Pittsburgh Steelers during Sunday’s 13-6 defeat at the Cleveland Browns:
1.Mis-lead-ing
Through their mediocre 6-6 start and all the way up until Sunday, the Steelers held a remarkable distinction as one of only two NFL teams to hold a lead in every game they played this season.
Who would have thought that streak was snapped by the previously 3-13 Browns?
By way of 10 first-quarter points, the Browns took a lead Sunday and never looked back — despite not adding on any more points until kicking a field goal with 1 minute, 40 seconds left after it had taken over at the Steelers’ 20 yard-line at the two-minute warning.
The Steelers’ failure to have a leg up on the scoreboard during any point Sunday leaves the Denver Broncos as the lone NFL team to have a lead in every game it has played. For the Broncos, it makes more sense — they have won 13 of 16. During Denver’s two September defeats, it even held a lead in the fourth quarter.
The only time, however, the Broncos led two weeks ago against the Jacksonville Jaguars was a brief 10-7 advantage during the second quarter of an eventual 34-20 loss. The Broncos led for 5:37 that day.
The game the Steelers led for the shortest amount of time was Week 13 at home against the Buffalo Bills — the Steelers held leads of 7-0 and 7-3 over 8:25 that spanned halftime.
During Week 2 at home against the Seattle Seahawks, the Steelers led for 9:59.
The victory in which the Steelers led for the smallest amount of time? The opener at the New York Jets, when they held a lead for 14:45.
In three games this season the Steelers have not trailed at any point: at the New England Patriots in Week 3 and home victories against the Browns and Cincinnati Bengals.
2. Silver-lining playbook
There is much angst among Steelers Nation after Sunday’s loss — and rightfully so. But that should not disguise that the defense played well.
It certainly didn’t so during Cleveland’s first two drives of the game in which the Browns gained 127 yards and scored 10 points. That represented a season high for opponent scoring in the first quarter. Until Sunday, the Steelers had allowed only 51 points in the first quarter and only three first-quarter points over the 60 minutes of first quarters over their previous four games.
The good news Sunday was that over their final six meaningful drives of the game (not counting a kneeldown at the end), the Browns managed 59 yards of offense (49 net yards when accounting for penalties) and two first downs.
Another kudos for the Steelers’ defense? It held Cleveland running backs to 2.8 yards per carry with no carries of more than 6 yards. Over the Steelers’ past three games, opponents have totaled 53 carries for 156 rushing yards (2.9 per carry and 52.0 per game).
That’s quite a bounce-back from allowing 466 yards on 91 carries (5.1 per rush and 233 per game) over the two outings before this stretch.
Then again … one of those poor performances was against the Baltimore Ravens — the Steelers’ opponent in the looming win-or-go-home Sunday night game to close out the NFL regular season.
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More sports
• Mark Madden: Steelers’ loss at Cleveland littered with ineptitude
• Madden Monday: If Steelers lose to Ravens, Mike Tomlin ‘should be fired before he gets off the field’
• First Call: Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward jab Steelers’ strategy during loss to Browns; Lamar Jackson update
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3. Mapping out the middle
Before Sunday, with only two outliers the Steelers had played like an “average” NFL team. They had (mostly) beat the “bad” teams and (mostly) lost to the “good” teams.
Aside from the champions of the AFC North and NFC South, the playoff fields are set in both NFL conferences. Noting that the Ravens’ fate remains up in the air, the Steelers this season are 1-5 against playoff teams. Against teams that are not yet in the playoffs, they fell to 8-2 with the loss to Cleveland.
Against teams with winning records to this point (three of the Steelers’ opponents are 8-8), the Steelers are also 1-5 because the six playoff-bound teams are the only ones they have played that have a winning record.
Still, the Steelers have the AFC’s second-best “strength of victory” — a computation the NFL uses as a playoff tiebreaker. Teams the Steelers have beaten have combined for 65 wins and a .451 winning percentage.
4. Myles away from a record
Browns star Myles Garrett implied the Steelers were more concerned with preventing him from breaking the single-season NFL sacks record Sunday than they were about winning the game. The evidence doesn’t necessarily support that assertion.
Yes, the Steelers were game planning to stop Garrett — and, yes, they schemed to limit Garrett’s opportunities for sacks.
But of course they did that. Garrett is a lock to win NFL Defensive Player of the Year — any opponent at any time would focus on containing him. Furthermore, the methods to limit an elite opposing pass rusher are tools the Steelers have been using all season.
According to ESPN, Garrett was “chipped” on 41% of his pass-rush snaps. That’s the eighth-highest rate by a team against an edge rusher this season — but that shows that at least seven other opponents (ones presumably not influenced by a pending record) have schemed even more against a big-time pass rusher.
ESPN also notes that during the 23 snaps when Garrett was not chipped, the Steelers ran a quick passing play or had Aaron Rodgers roll away from Garrett 17 times.
But getting rid of the ball quickly has been the Steelers’ reality all season long regardless of opponent. Rodgers’ 2.39 average time to throw (in seconds after the snap) wasn’t even the quickest in the NFL during Week 17. And it wasn’t Rodgers’ quickest average time to throw for a game this season. Rodgers, through 15 games, has the lowest average time to throw of any full-time starter.
And that’s against everyone — not just a guy a sack away from passing teammate T.J. Watt for an NFL record.
5. Snap chat
Kenneth Gainwell played 45 of the Steelers’ 66 offensive snaps in Cleveland, whereas fellow running back Jaylen Warren played only 21. The 24-snap differential was the most for any game in which both dressed this season.
The 21 snaps Warren played were the second fewest for a game since Week 13 of his rookie 2022 season. Gainwell’s 45 snaps, conversely, were a career high over his five NFL seasons.
Gainwell surpassed Warren for snaps played for the season 467-461.
On defense, something that stood out was an almost-equal share of playing time among the Steelers’ three best defensive linemen. Of 52 defensive snaps against the Browns, Cameron Heyward was on the field for 37 of them, Derrick Harmon 36 and Keeanu Benton 34.
At inside linebacker, Malik Harrison played more than 50% of the defensive snaps for the fourth time over the past six games. Over that time, he has out-snapped Payton Wilson, 221-177 — including 26-23 on Sunday. Expect that to continue Sunday against the run-heavy Ravens.