The Steelers hammered the Browns!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Pittsburgh Steelers earned their most convincing victory of the season on Sunday, pulling away for a 27-6 win over the Cleveland Browns to solidify first place in the AFC North heading into the bye week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The run defense was dominant again. Coming off a game against the New Orleans Saints during which they allowed just 18 yards on 17 carries, the Steelers stymied the Browns\u2019 rushing attack, giving up 34 yards on 15 carries. They have given up 55 rushing yards per game during their four-game winning streak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cam Heyward had one of his best games of the season. He had three tackles, a sack and a half, and yet another batted ball at the line of scrimmage. He has the fourth-most passes defensed for a defensive lineman in NFL history. T.J. Watt had two sacks and is tied with Will Anderson for the NFL lead near the halfway point of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fellow outside linebackers Nick Herbig and Alex Highsmith also factored in on sacks. Highsmith drew a holding call, as well, and was one of the best players on the field Sunday. He finished with five tackles and three quarterback hits. Inside linebacker Patrick Queen had a team-high 12 tackles and 1 1\/2 sacks. It was the second game in a row that Queen registered a sack. Payton Wilson, meanwhile, had eight tackles, including one for a two-yard loss when the Browns had first and goal at the 3 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson threw for 324 yards, but much of it came in garbage time during the fourth quarter as the Browns were throwing on almost every down. Tight end Harold Fannin Jr. caught 10 passes for 154 yards, but otherwise the Steelers kept the Browns\u2019 passing game in check. Safeties Robert Spears-Jennings and Jaquan Brisker had seven and six tackles, respectively. Fannin was a problem, but the Browns never reached the end zone. The defensive backs played a big role in that. Rookie Kevin Jobity Jr. picked up his first career sack in the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once again the Steelers relied on Jaylen Warren and once again, he delivered. Celebrating his 28th birthday Warren put together another punishing performance. Warren had 143 rushing yards and is on pace for well over 2,000 yards from scrimmage for the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has 998 through the first eight games. Rico Dowdle added 56 rushing yards and scored on a 9-yard run. That 1-2 punch wore down the Browns. Warren had 18 touches and Dowdle 15. Warren early and Dowdle late with a lead is the ideal usage from the coaching staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aaron Rodgers posted a season-low passer rating of 57.4 and yet the first-place Steelers still earned their most convincing victory of the season. Rodgers completed only 13 passes but did hit some shots downfield to his tight ends that broke the game open. He finished with 172 passing yards and could have had more than 200 if not for a drop by DK Metcalf on a deep ball that turned into an interception when Denzel Ward picked off the deflection. The play was big, because of touchdown there would have ended the game. Metcalf continues to struggle and the frustration is growing amongst the fans. He is an absolute force but seems to be in his own head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Steelers continue to win with their wide receivers playing a very small role in the offense. Their longest completion to a receiver was Germie Bernard\u2019s 16-yard catch late in the first half. That lack of explosive plays is the reason the Steelers keep getting mentioned among the teams that could add a receiver at the trade deadline. Of course, when your tight ends are as productive as Darnell Washington and Pat Freiermuth, the problems at receiver are minimized to an extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Steelers did a great job of recognizing the Browns were aggressively defending short passes early in the game, and Rodgers sprung Washington and Freiermuth behind their linebackers for big plays. Washington\u2019s 58-yard reception early in the third quarter was the dagger. Warren scored on the next play to give the Steelers a commanding 27-6 lead. Washington finished with a career-high 94 receiving yards on three receptions. Freiermuth had two catches for 35 yards and was the QB on the Steel City shove touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The special teams continued their up and down season. The kickoff return team is finally starting to show signs of life. Rookie Kaden Wetjen had three returns for 80 yards with a long return of 31 yards. Chris Boswell converted two field goals but missed a 57-yarder in the first quarter. He has as many misses in eight games as he did all of last season. He continues to struggle to make the 50+ yarders, something that would have been unthinkable last season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With first place in the AFC North on the line, Mike McCarthy had his team ready to play. There were some who panned McCarthy\u2019s decision to hire Patrick Graham as defensive coordinator, but Graham has had this defense playing great during the four-game winning streak. The Steelers kept the Browns from scoring a touchdown Sunday and have given up 16 total points in the past two games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
McCarthy has some things to figure out on offense, particularly in the red zone and goal-to-go situations. There is palpable frustration given how strong the running game has been. He can\u2019t get out of his own way sometimes. The Steelers had 118 rushing yards in the first quarter. The second quarter started with a first-and-goal play at the 2-yard line. Rodgers threw the patent fade to Metcalf that has not worked yet, then missed again on second down and Warren was stopped for no gain on third down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These sequences are what prevents the offense from pulling away early in these games. It was the perfect opportunity to lean into the ever-improving running game. What made the decision even worse was the low-percentage call, a fade to Metcalf in the end zone, which by now everyone knows doesn\u2019t work. Faced with a similar situation later in the second quarter, Rodgers threw three straight incomplete passes, and the Steelers settled for another field goal. For those saying Rodgers is changing plays at the line, the head coach can put a stop to that any time he wants. Just tell him to run the play called in the huddle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is there work to do, yes, but absolutely humbling your division rival and taking sole place of first headed into the bye week is a good place to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My \u201cGAME BEER\u201d goes to:<\/strong> Jaylen Warren. Celebrating his 28th birthday in style with 143 rushing yards on 17 carries (8.4 YPC) and the touchdown that sealed it. He has 998 yards from scrimmage through eight games and is the undeniable engine of this offense. Also Considered:<\/em> Cam Heyward (3 tackles, 1.5 sacks, batted ball) and the Outside Linebacker room (T.J. Watt, Alex Highsmith, Nick Herbig) for racking up 8 total sacks and suffocating the run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beer of the Game:<\/strong> IC Light. Had to keep it traditional and classic for a major AFC North rivalry win at home! KGB had IC Berry for the tailgate and Yuengling inside!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Steel the Snacks:<\/strong> No Cleveland Po-Boys for this one, we were there! The Terrible Bra and Grille Tailgate the snack was Sunseri Atomic Rolls from The Strip. We had some crazy hot dog in the stadium for the game and I always have Peanuts for the game, which I put in my beer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Stat of the Week:<\/strong> 34 rushing yards allowed on 15 carries. Coming off giving up just 18 rushing yards last week against New Orleans, this defense is surrendering a ridiculous 55 rushing yards per game during the four-game winning streak. My Steelers record now stands at<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Thoughts on Next Week:<\/strong> Sitting in sole possession of first place in the AFC North heading into the bye week is a great spot to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jersey of the Week:<\/strong> Mean Joe Greene, Home #75, this is my gamer and it was the perfect way to break out the Steelers jerseys for 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Steelers hammered the Browns! The Pittsburgh Steelers earned their most convincing victory of the season on Sunday, pulling away for a 27-6 win over the Cleveland Browns to solidify first place in the AFC North heading into the bye week. The run defense was dominant again. Coming off a game against the New Orleans […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bwg-gr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3772"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3775,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3772\/revisions\/3775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bwgsteelers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}