CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Browns held the Steelers 24-22 on Sunday. But that’s just what the scoreboard said.
Here are the real winners and losers of the match:
WINNER: Trilogies
Browns-Steelers I was the kind of dud who goes straight to video.
Browns-Steelers II had a lot more intrigue, but they did not have star power (although it is already a cult classic in Cleveland).
However, the NFL is not yet ready to cancel this series, as the third episode comes to you on Sunday night in the version of an AFC Wild Card game.
Browns-Steelers III: The Starters Strike Back!
Whose appetizer? Who knows?
But both teams will return to the series after a week of rest or a week on the reserve / COVID-19 list of numerous players. The match is already planned for the best time.
The biggest reason for that is surely the division match. Not only will the Browns and Steelers play for the third time this season, it’s the third time they have met in the playoffs.
The first meeting was in 1995, a loss of 29-9 Browns. The second was in 2002, a 36-33 loss to the Browns.
The Browns were 0-3 against the Steelers in both seasons. And in 2002, the Browns lost all three events by three points. Talk about boring trilogies. It is as if they have just repeated the same scripture over and over again.
The Browns have never won a playoff game against a divisional opponent.
Along with the losses to the Steelers, the Browns lost a 1988 Wild Card game against the Oilers. Similar to this season, the Browns had to play the Oilers in the last game with regular season (a win), turn around a week later and face them in the playoffs (a loss).
Divisional enemies have met 20 times in the playoffs since 2002, when the NFL recreated in an eight-division format. The Browns and Steelers were first on the list at the playoffs in 2002.
The Rams and Seahawks, who will meet in the NFC, will join them this year.
The lower-ranked team won ten of the 20 playoffs between division opponents, with a No. 6 seed beating a No. 3 in five of them.
This season, the Browns are no. 6.
The Steelers are number 3.
WENNER: Baker Mayfield
Should we start calling Baker Mayfield a double threat quarter?
Probably not.
But he had two of the game’s biggest plays by running with the ball, so that makes him a kind of threat.
The first play was his 28-year-old scramble in the third quarter, from the Steelers 44-yard line to the 16. He handed an attack to Austin Hooper three times later.
The second play was left with 1:10 left and the Browns faced off against the third-and-2. Kevin Stefanski calls a goalkeeper and Mayfield follows Jack Conklin and Kareem Hunt around the right for three yards and a first down. This enabled Mayfield to kneel on the next play and perform the remaining seconds of the match.
Mayfield had 44 runs in the game, a career high. Overall, he beat the Steelers three times.
As a passer, Mayfield finished 17-out-27 for 196 yards and hit. That included 10-of-12 in the second half.
He finished the regular season with the third highest rating for singles (95.9) in the history of Browns, behind only Milt Plum (110.4, 1960) and Otto Graham (99.7, 1953).
LOST: Third-and-long
The Steelers were 8-out-17 on the third down, including 5-out-10 in the first half.
It seems like every conversion is third and long.
Rudolph completed the pass for the first time at third-and-8 (twice), third-and-9, third-and-10 and third-and-11. Chase Claypool and Diontae Johnson both received 41 yards during the third round, and JuJu Smith-Schuster has a 26-year-old.
We don’t even count Claypool’s 28-yard dash at fourth and tenth.
These are very long conversions that the Browns do not want to repeat on Sunday.
WINNER: Jacob Phillips
It was a pleasant new season for Jacob Phillips. He was inactive for six games and suffered a knee injury. Pro Football Focus gives him the team’s lowest defensive grade through 15 games (34.4) and he has had seven tackles in 102 shots.
But with BJ Goodson on the reserve / COVID-19 list this week, Phillips was pushed into the starting lineup for the first time since Week 1, when he had 12 total snaps.
Phillips had a team of ten runs on Sunday, including a loss in the first quarter. But it was his blitz with Ronnie Harrison in the third quarter that was his biggest moment.
With Phillips’ pressure on center and Harrison off the sidelines, Mason Rudolph JuJu Smith-Schuster got in the way, causing MJ Stewart to intercept.
Every other draft of Browns (outside of the injured Grant Delpit) has had its time this season. Jedrick Wills Jr. start. Jordan Elliott imposed a major obstacle against the Eagles and played a key role in delaying Derrick Hendry of the Titans.
Harrison Bryant has three touchdowns. Nick Harris stood on the right guard for two games. Donovan Peoples-Jones has made some important catches this season.
Now Phillips has his moment.
LOST: Stefanski’s leading fourth-and-7 game from the opponent’s 35-year-old line
The Browns were 0-for-2 in fourth place against the Steelers. It follows with what they have been doing all season, which is 8-for-22. It is a tenth place in attempts, but 28th in conversion percentage (36.4) before Sunday’s game.
Stefanski mostly does what the consensus of analytics says he should do on the fourth down. And believe it or not, to do so on the fourth-and-7 from the opponent’s 35-year-old line, the analytics crowd is not entirely disapproved.
According to the New York Times 4th Down Bot, which provides information on such decisions, coaches must pick them in fourth-and-7th place between the opponent’s 44- and 36-yard lines. Stefanski was therefore right on point.
The key in all of this was time. Only 3:41 remained in the match. A 52-yard field goal increased the Browns by 27-16. But Cody Parkey has yet to try one of the 50-plus players this season. And there were shaky moments from Parkey.
It really comes down to a sentencing call from Stefanski.
‘How many meters have we lost before? ‘It would probably have kicked if we had not lost the yard, but we had a play in that window that we did not use, and it was really the best play in that window,’ ‘Stefanski said. “Felt good about it, that’s really all it was.”
The Browns led 24-16 at the time. A third bag lost four yards. But the Browns kept their offense on the field and put together 11 staff members with KhaDarel Hodge, Jarvis Landry and Rashard Higgins splitting right. Mayfield’s pass to Higgins was low and incomplete.
The play did not work, but it had to. Higgins was open. A better throw keeps that drive alive.
Good call. Poor execution.
WINNER: Survivors 1-3-3
Joel Bitonio was a second-round pick of the Browns in 2014. Charley Hughlett was signed to the training group a few months later and then kicked to a few other teams before returning in December.
No one on the Browns list has been here long.
But if we are to go through the drama and frustration of the previous four seasons – including the 1-31 series of 2016 and 2017 – Bitonio and Hughlett have a bit of company.
Other 1-31 survivors heading to the playoffs include Rashard Higgins, the last remaining member of the 14-player rookie class of 2016. There are also first-time players 2017, Myles Garrett and David Njoku, along with the year ‘s third player, Larry Ogunjobi. And JC Tretter, who signed as a free agent that year.
Tretter was the only one of the bunch to have already experienced a winning record, thanks to three seasons at Green Bay.
And of course, there are Browns fans. They are also survivors of 1-31 and 13 years since the last winning record and 18 years since the last playoff game and 26 years since the last 11-win season.
LOST: Resentment
WINNER: Rebranding
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Brown play shirts, hats for sale: Here Cleveland Browns fans can order shirts and hats celebrate the team that qualifies for the NFL playoffs in 2020.
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