Steelers Now
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It’s always tough to go on the road and come away with a win on Thursday Night Football and the Pittsburgh Steelers found that out the hard way during tonight’s 24-19 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Even though they won the turnover battle 3-1, it still wasn’t enough to get the job done.
This game was every bit the slugfest that we anticipated but in uncharacteristic fashion, Mike Tomlin’s team couldn’t make enough winning plays down the stretch to keep their winning streak alive. The good news is that they’ll now have a mini-bye to regroup, figure out some things on both sides of the ball and get healthy.
But first, let’s talk through some notable performances from Week 12.
There weren’t a ton of bright spots in this one for the Steelers squad but DeShon Elliott continues to play solid football. To open the second half, he put laid a big hit on Browns wideout Cedric Tillman and knocked the ball loose. The Steelers would recover that fumble. He also had a couple pass breakups in this one, including nice coverage in the end zone on a two-point conversion that would late in the contest.
Sure, the Browns paid a lot of attention to T.J. Watt whenever they dropped back to pass in this one, often times via a chip from a back or tight end. That combined with a strong performance from right tackle Jack Conklin left the Steelers best player mostly a bystander in this one. According to next gen stats, he registered just one pressure on 24 pass rush attempts and aside from a couple tackles in the run game, he didn’t make much of an impact. To make matters worse for the Steelers, Myles Garrett dominated on the other side and that was the difference in the outcome of this game.
I realize that Garrett is one of the best pass rushers of his generation but Dan Moore Jr. offered very little resistance tonight as a pass blocker. The final tally tonight was unbelievably ridiculous: eight pressures, three sacks and a forced fumbles and most of those were at the expense of the Steelers left tackle. His performance this season has been well above the line but this just goes to show that there are some obvious limitations to what he can do versus the cream of the crop. Pittsburgh tried to give him help tonight but it wasn’t enough and it cost them.
Once again, the Steelers offense, specifically their passing game, was mostly feast or famine more than anything else. But Austin’s speed helped create a couple of explosive plays tonight when the Browns went into their two-high shell coverages. The 46-yard rip in the first half was the result of a shifty route that...
