Dawgs By Nature
Cleveland and Pittsburgh own the AFC’s longest rivalry. Here are 5 memorable games from the series.
The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers will renew their rivalry with a pair of matchups in the 2025 NFL season.
Cleveland will travel to Pittsburgh in Week 6, and then host the Steelers in Week 17 in what is the AFC’s longest-running series.
Related: Browns 2025 Schedule Primer: Weeks 6 & 17, Pittsburgh Steelers
It is a series that has seen both teams dominate at times, with the Browns going 32-9 from 1950 to 1969, while the Steelers held the edge from 1999 through 2019. Things have evened out in recent years as the Browns are 6-7 against the Steelers since 2019.
Let’s take a look at five memorable games between the two teams in a series that dates back to 1950.
The Browns won in dramatic fashion to move into a first-place tie with the Steelers in the AFC Central Division and send more than 80,000 fans home happy.
Cleveland jumped out to a 20-3 lead in the second quarter after Mike Phipps hit Frank Pitts with a 17-yard touchdown pass. But Pittsburgh scored a touchdown before halftime and slowly worked its way back into the game. The Steelers took a 24-23 lead in the fourth quarter after Franco Harris ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run, and the situation looked bleak after Don Cockroft missed a field goal on the ensuing possession.
But Cleveland’s defense forced the Steelers to punt, and Phipps drove the Browns into field-goal range. This time, Cockroft’s 26-yard field goal was true, and Cleveland pulled out the victory in a game that marked the final 100-yard rushing day of Leroy Kelly’s Hall-of-Fame career.
Cleveland used a second-half rally to defeat Pittsburgh for the first time in four years behind Brian Sipe’s 349 passing yards and four touchdown passes.
The Steelers jumped out to a 10-0 lead and pushed the margin to 12 points heading into the fourth quarter after a two-yard touchdown run by Sidney Thornton. But the Browns rallied back on a pair of Sipe touchdown passes, the first a seven-yard toss to Greg Pruitt, and then an 18-yarder to Ozzie Newsome that gave Cleveland its first lead of the game with just a little more than five minutes remaining.
Cleveland’s defense took over from there and sealed the win when Ron Bolton intercepted a Cliff Stoudt pass inside the two-minute warning. Dave Logan paced the Browns with eight receptions for 131 yards, while Pruitt added 71 receiving yards and a pair of touchdown receptions.
Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium opened in 1970, and for 16 consecutive years, the Browns would find a way to lose when they faced the Steelers in Pittsburgh. That all changed on this day as the Browns blew an early 10-point lead to rally back and finally break the Three...
