2024 Week 12: Steelers 19, Browns 24
This game had a threat of snow leading all the way up until kickoff, and then there was nothing. The field was in good condition, the winds weren’t too high, and the light snow wasn’t playing much of a factor. Despite this, neither team tried to take advantage of the favorable weather early on and just played conservatively. As the snow started to fall during halftime the offenses came out firing and scored 27 points in the 4th quarter… in a snowstorm.
This was a very well-played game by Cleveland, they’d have a winning record if Jameis started from Week 1. The Browns (3-8) have beaten Baltimore and Pittsburgh behind Winston, two playoff teams. Cleveland’s season is over, but they are energized with Winston at QB. If the organization wants to stick with Winston in the future he’ll start the season. If they want to tank for a QB in the draft they’ll throw in Dorian Thompson-Robinson to ‘see what they have’.
The Steelers (8-3) just gave Baltimore extra motivation for their MNF game against the Chargers tonight. If Baltimore can win they will be half a game behind for the division. Pittsburgh has a very tough schedule and will be a playoff team… It’s just a matter of whether they win the division or not.
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- Jameis Winston (18/27 for 219 yards, 1 INT) played another great game, and is bringing the rest of the Browns offense with him. When the weather got tough Jameis played his best football of the game. Cleveland is (2-2) under Winston and the Saints game last week was 14-14 in the 4th quarter before Taysom Hill played the best quarter of his career.
- Winston is playing his way into a starting job next year, and it might be in Cleveland. He’s really turned his career around.
RB Report:
- Nick Chubb (20-59-2; 1 catch for 1 yard) is back. I’ve been saying since his return that he looks fine, like his old self, but everyone was doubting him saying the injury killed his career. Now he’s back to being one of the best backs in the league. Chubb’s buy-low value is officially gone.
- Chubb’s yards per carry was still low but I put that more on the O-line than on Chubb… Cleveland has a strong case for the league's worst blocking in both the run and pass game.
- Jaylen Warren (11-45-1; 3 catches for 19 yards) again played better than Najee Harris (16-41-0; 2 catches for 13 yards), but he actually out-snapped Najee in this game! Warren should be the focus after this; he certainly earned it, but because of a good Warren and lesser Najee game, we won’t see much of Warren. That’s just the way this backfield works, unfortunately.
WR/TE Report:
- Of all the WRs in this game, I didn’t expect Jerry Jeudy (6-85-0/6) to lead the way in receiving. Jeudy has struggled with drops his entire career and all of a sudden, in a snow game, he magically has the best hands ever. Jeudy was instrumental to the Browns comeback and had most of his work in the worst conditions of the night.
- Calvin Austin (3-78-1/3) had a great game, and just like Jeudy, he did most of it in the worst condition. Unfortunately for Austin, the passing game runs through George Pickens (4-48-0/7)… but he made a statement here. He showed the coaches that he was an underutilized talent. Let’s see if Tomlin/Smith view it that way… more than likely this will be like the Harris-Warren situation.
image source: (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)