Takeaways, overreactions, and random musings from the Steelers’ Thursday night loss.
The Steelers fell to 8-3 after an ugly road loss on Thursday Night Football to the rival Cleveland Browns. As always, there are plenty of takeaways to be had.
Pittsburgh’s performance against the Browns was so laughably incompetent at times that I’m less annoyed than usual at the expected “fire Tomlin/Smith/everyone and everything” crowd following the loss. Thursday’s game was an absolutely brutal watch.
However, it’s entertaining to watch the same fanbase that wisely predicted this exact outcome prior to the game be the same ones to react incredulously to the loss. Yeah, it was worse than most expected, but most figured a short week, bad weather, and rivalry matchup would result in a sloppy game. It’s the Thursday Night Football M.O.
Pittsburgh is still 8-3 following the loss, and in the exact same spot in the AFC North and AFC as a whole that they were going into the week — and that won’t change following the rest of Week 12’s games. Good teams losing the occasional stupid game they shouldn’t is hardly a rarity in the NFL, and it’s hard to find a more stupid game than what happened Thursday night.
Pittsburgh had plenty of self-inflicted wounds on Sunday, but some things you just have to chalk up to weather being the great equalizer. On the play that set up the Browns’ game-winning touchdown, Minkah Fitzpatrick had a chance to make a play on the ball but looked like he was learning how to ice skate. You can’t draw too many dire conclusions from a game that served as the unofficial Ice Age 6.
The Steelers were on a five-game winning streak entering Week 12. They were bound to lose eventually, and this was one of the better times to do so. Their playoff position hasn’t changed a bit, and there’s a mini-bye afterwards to recuperate.
Objectively though, it’s kind of hilarious that Pittsburgh has gone 2-1 following the bye week, with wins over the 7-2 Commanders and 8-3 Ravens but a loss to the 2-8 Browns. The NFL is a weird place, man.
But don’t forget, this is still that exact Steelers team that beat the Commanders and Ravens, and if we're throwing all the current playoff teams in there, the Chargers, Broncos, and Falcons as well. The problems that the Steelers had against the Browns haven’t defined the season, or otherwise there wouldn't be so many wins over postseason-caliber teams. There are plenty of issues to dive into, and we will, but let’s not hit the panic button just yet.
My seven-paragraph caveat above doesn’t mean that the Steelers’ Thursday performance was excusable. Pittsburgh’s loss would've been bad enough if the game had ended the same way it was played through the first three quarters. But instead, the Steelers managed to gain the lead and control of the game late in...