Browns Kick Away Opportunity in Pittsburgh, Lose to Steelers 27-14: Game Notes

Offense doesn't make enough plays and the special teams' season-long failures continued in an AFC North loss.

(Photo - Cleveland Browns)

The streak of regular season losses in Pittsburgh — the one that started in 2004 and is one of the league’s most perplexing — carried forward with yet another loss in Acrisure Stadium.

Following a 35-yard touchdown pass from Jameis Winston to Jerry Jeudy, the Browns jumped out to a 7-3 lead midway through the first quarter. After that lead it was all downhill as Cleveland lost in Pittsburgh yet again, 27-14.

The difference in the game was a Browns offense that couldn’t finish drives and the league’s worst kicking game led by Dustin Hopkins who missed consecutive kicks from 38 and 43 yards at the end of the first half and start of the second. The Browns defense chipped in with sloppy tackling and an inability to get key stops on the most meaningful third downs of the game. Bad formula and one that leaves your head coach looking like this more often than not.

The season now shows a 3-10 record and the draft position decision-making is in full force. The Browns had a real chance to end some meaningful streaks against their division rival and upend the Steelers pursuit of a division title and run to the playoffs. None of that manifested today so let’s spend some time discussing how that happened.

Let’s get through the Week 14 Game Notes.

• The game started well for Jameis Winston as he found Jerry Jeudy on a play he extended by stepping up and sliding out the pocket left. He dipped his head to escape the pressure (a theme as the game progressed) but got it back up just in time to find Jeudy and deliver an accurate ball.

• The problem for Winston was again how he dealt with pressure. Too often his head went down and worked forward into his own pressure. He doesn’t handle those chaotic moments in the pocket well enough for a game like this where the Steelers get pressure without needing to blitz extra bodies. It felt like the Chargers game in that sense. The scheme provides few answers due to drop coverage, Winston gets sped up within the process and it often led to missed passes, sacks, or poor decisions like the screen interception.

• The run game continues to find very little success in under-center concepts. That is copy/pasted from last week. The game started with a negative on a Y-Counter concept that left T.J. Watt unblocked off the backside edge. They lose the point of attack too easily. Otherwise they ran from under-center looks four times for -18 yards.

• The shotgun run game did bear fruit, though. They ran a variety of schemes we will cover this week and finally broke through for 21 carries and 112 yards — that includes three read schemes where Jameis Winston pull the ball and ran three times for 26 yards. Again, this is the only productive run process they have right now.

• Jerry Jeudy was good in this one as he caught the early touchdown but wasn’t targeted again until the second half. He hauled-in five of six targets for 64 yards and that touchdown. Silent performance from the others as Elijah Moore had just 34 yards on three catches, Mike Woods had just one for 12 yards and an OPI on a key second-half throw near the goal line.