In what arguably was the best football game of the season, the Pittsburgh Steelers ended up on the losing end of a thrilling battle against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday, 35-30. The two storied franchises exchanged blows the entire game, with Dallas’ rookie phenom of a running back Ezekiel Elliott having the last laugh and breaking the Heinz Field crowd’s hearts with a late rushing touchdown with just nine seconds remaining in the contest.
There was plenty to love from the Steelers’ offense that afternoon, though, as Ben Roethlisberger exploded for 408 passing yards and three touchdowns – only the third time in his career that he has over 400 passing yards and three TDs in a single game. As usual, it was Antonio Brown (154 receiving yards, one TD) who did most the most damage along with Big Ben in the passing game. And even stud back Le’Veon Bell racked up 134 all-purpose yards and added two more scores against the Cowboys.
However, Dallas and Pittsburgh saw seven lead changes during Sunday’s bout because both teams pretty much refused to play any defense. The Steelers, in particular, surrendered 422 offensive yards to the Cowboys en route to their fourth-consecutive defeat. That’s the third time this season that they’ve given up over 420 yards to the opposition, and all three of those instances have led to inevitable losses.
For as porous and unstable Pittsburgh’s D has been, perhaps that unit will get some sort of a breather and pick-me-up in Week 11 against the bumbling Browns. But before we get into Cleveland’s bleaker side of things below, do note that the Steelers have won six of their last seven meetings against their Browns to date (5-2 ATS).
Yeesh… Let’s just give the Cleveland Browns the first-round pick in next year’s draft already so we don’t have to watch them begrudgingly play football on a weekly basis.
The winless Browns stayed winless through ten games – and counting – after a 28-7 humiliation at the hands of the Ravens in Baltimore this past Thursday. Just about everything about this Cleveland ball club is atrocious that we don’t even know where to begin discussing about their complete ineptitude.
For starters: the passing game can’t figure out who’ll be at quarterback in a particular game, let alone any given quarter. Cody Kessler started that Thursday night and went a rather efficient 11-of-18 for 91 passing yards and a touchdown before halftime. Then, for whatever dumb reason head coach Hue Jackson had in mind, the Browns opted to switch to Josh McCown for the rest of the second half and got rewarded with zero points the rest of the way and with two picks off of McCown to boot.
Not even Cleveland’s running game showed up, as the team just ran the ball 13 times for a measly 33 rushing yards against the Ravens. And if you thought that the Browns’ defense provided a silver lining from Thursday’s rout, you’re out of luck there, too. The team has given up no less than 28 points to its opponents for the eighth-straight game. The Browns, on average, are giving up 30 points per contest this season (second-worst in the NFL only to San Francisco’s 32.5 points allowed entering Week 10), and that’s sweet music to the high-flying Steelers’ ears indeed.
To top it all off, and as if Pittsburgh’s domination over its AFC North rivals wasn’t enough, the Browns are just 2-12 at home since the start of the previous season (2-11-1 ATS).
We cannot stress enough how horrible this Cleveland team is right now, so don’t try to get fancy and strongly believe that the Browns will see and end to their drought this coming Sunday versus a Steelers team coming off a brutal loss and that’s now out for some swift vengeance.
Writer’s Prediction
Make no mistake about it: the Steelers (-9) trample all over the Browns, 36-13.
