The Pittsburgh Steelers certainly won when they needed to this week. The Steelers faced the Cleveland Browns and defeated them 28-12 in Cleveland. The Steelers had something to prove; that they could be a playoff team after last week’s loss against the Baltimore Ravens.
The Steelers will now get the opportunity to be a playoff team, as their win and the Buffalo Bills win over the New York Jets will send the Steelers to Cincinnati on January 9 to face the Bengals.
Here are our grades for how the Steelers performance went against the Browns in the final week of regular season football.
Quarterback-Ben Roethlisberger didn’t have a great day, but it wasn’t awful either. Roethlisberger does deserve a lot of credit, though, as he had to depend on the passing game the majority of the game. Roethlisberger finished off the day with 24/36 completed passes for 349 yards. Roethlisberger threw three touchdowns, but also threw two interceptions in the game. Luckily for Roethlisberger, the interceptions didn’t turn out to be costly. Grade: B
Running Backs– DeAngelo Williams had a rough day against the Browns. The running back, who is filling in starting duties for the injured Le’Veon Bell, went down in the second quarter with a right ankle injury. Before his injury, Williams had five carries for only eight yards. His replacement was Fitzgerald Toussaint, who had 12 carries for only 24 yards. However, good news came from head coach Mike Tomlin’s post-game press conference where he mentioned that the team is not ruling Williams out for the AFC Wild Card game. Grade: C
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends– The receiving corps roller coaster was at it again. Last week, the group had no touchdowns against the Baltimore Ravens. However, this week the group was targeted a whole lot more whenever Williams went down and Toussaint couldn’t get anything going on the run game. Antonio Brown, Heath Miller and Markus Wheaton all had touchdowns. Brown led the receiving group with 13 receptions for 187 yards. Grade: A
Offensive Line- The offensive line didn’t do much when it came to the running game, as Williams and Toussaint totaled only 32 yards. However, when it came to protecting Roethlisberger, the line did much better than last week. The Browns defense did not get one sack on Roethlisberger. When the run game doesn’t work, protecting your quarterback is all that matters. Grade: A
Defensive Line– The Steelers defensive line had quite the day in Cleveland. The line held Browns running back Isaiah Crowell to only 53 yards on 15 carries. Stephon Tuitt had two sacks on Browns quarterback Austin Davis and also led the defensive line in tackles with three and one assist. Grade: A-
Linebackers: The linebackers had a field day with Austin Davis on Sunday. Lawrence Timmons had seven tackles, three assists, and a sack (along with a sack assist). James Harrison intercepted Davis and had one solo tackle and one assist. Arthur Moats had a sack on Davis while Ryan Shazier helped out Timmons with a sack. On Timmons one sack, Davis even fumbled the ball. Needless to say, the Steelers defense had a nice time roughing up Davis. Grade: A+
Secondary- The secondary redeemed themselves after last week’s show in Baltimore. The secondary had two sacks on Davis coming from Antwon Blake and Will Allen. Allen seemed to be everywhere on the field, having seven tackles. Brandon Boykin had four tackles, along with Blake, and even forced a fumble from running back Raheem Mostert. Grade: A+
Special Teams- Like last week, the Steelers special team game went relatively quietly. Wheaton and Brown had three returns total with nothing flashy going on during the returns. Kicker Chris Boswell missed his first field goal from 48 yards in the game but made his next two, which were from 39 and 21 yards, and converted both the Steelers two extra-point attempts. Grade: B+
Coaching– The Steelers coaching staff had quite the day. Todd Haley and Roethlisberger communicated well, resulting in three Steeler touchdowns. Tomlin used his timeouts wisely in the second half, and saved his three timeouts in the first half for the Steelers last drive of the half, the drive in which Brown scored his touchdown. Keith Butler had his defense blitzing and tormenting Davis all day, resulting in six sacks. Grade: A
