The Cleveland Browns have not swept the Pittsburgh Steelers in a season since 1988. That streak will last at least one more year, as the Steelers enacted revenge from their Thursday night loss two weeks ago and beat the Browns 27-14.
Now at 10-3, the Steelers will head into the NFL’s daunting four-game stretch to finish out the year. But before we get ahead of ourselves, here’s my five thoughts from this game:
1: Steelers Offense Looks Bleak Without Pickens
Steelers wide receiver George Pickens popped up on the injury report on Friday with a hamstring, but all signs pointed to him still being good to go for yesterday’s game. That is, until the morning of the game, when Pickens was ruled out with that injury.
Officially, the team decided to not risk his injury growing into something more and decided to sit him this week as a precaution. However, that didn’t stop a lot of us from creating some fan theories that the injury was a cover for head coach Mike Tomlin to bench him for his problems against the Cincinnati Bengals last week.
At any rate, the Steelers offense definitely looked hampered without him. It’s no coincidence that Russell Wilson’s 158 passing yards in this game was a season low. The Steelers had no threat of the deep ball and were forced to try and share the wealth haphazardly on the field.
No Steelers target had more than 3 catches in this game, and no one had more than 48 receiving yards. Despite that, Wilson was still able to engineer a pair of touchdown passes to Van Jefferson and Pat Freiermuth.
However, the overall lack of flare on the offense is not going to be suitable against a team like Philadelphia, where the Steelers will play next week. I really hope Pickens is back for that.
2: Another Nod To Ben Skowronek
Just a few days ago, I wrote a column for The Pitt News on Ben Skowronek’s contributions to both the special teams and offensive units for the Steelers. In particular, the wide receiver has been a key aspect in the blocking game for this team in recent weeks.
While Skowronek was not as prominent on offense today for Pittsburgh, he did have another big-time play recovering a muffed punt late in the fourth quarter by Kadarius Toney.
This play sealed the game for the Steelers, who were able to run out the clock and ice it. That’s Skowronek’s second recovered muffed punt this season; he also nabbed one in a game against Washington that set up the Steelers in the red zone. Love this guy.
3: Mike Williams Comes Out Of Witness Protection
He hasn’t been here for super long, but wide receiver Mike Williams has become quite the underlying story for the Steelers ever since the team acquired him at the trade deadline from the New York Jets.
He made his Steelers debut against the Commanders and scored the game-winning touchdown, but had essentially been shuffled off to the sidelines ever since. He had no targets over the next three weeks, even as a lot of fans expected to see more of him as he had more time to acclimate into the offense.
With Pickens out of the lineup, Williams finally saw some passes go his way. The receiver caught 3 passes for 36 yards, and had another pass taken away thanks to an offensive pass interference call.
For weeks, we’ve wondered when (and eventually, if) we were going to see Williams with a true part in this offense. He and Pickens have somewhat similar games, hence why Williams sort of took the Pickens-type role in this game. If Pickens comes back next week, where does that leave Williams?
4: Welcome Back Scotty Miller
Speaking of wide receivers who suddenly were back in the fold today, let’s talk briefly about Scotty Miller. The usual special teams player has been inactive three of the last four weeks as his name slides down the receiver depth chart.
But with Pickens out, Miller got on the field for the first time since November 17th and made some important plays.
His best by far came on a third down play late in the fourth quarter. With the Steelers looking for a first down to help run out some more clock, Wilson threw a ball up with a prayer in Miller’s direction. The veteran was able to corral the pass and just barely get both feet in bounds to make it a catch.
Ideally, Miller isn’t getting 4 targets in this Steelers offense, but on a day where they needed some smaller names to step up, Miller did that. He ended his day with 3 catches and 38 yards through the air.
5: Chris Boswell
Time and time again we don’t properly appreciate how lucky we are that Chris Boswell wears black and yellow. Yesterday was another prime reminder.
Boswell nailed both a 30-yard and 54-yard field goal for the Steelers in this game, and tacked on a trio of extra points. His counterpart, Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins, missed field goals from 38 and 43 yards, putting his team behind the eight ball early.
His two missed field goals were the difference between a 13-13 tie and a 13-7 Steelers lead heading into half time, and it forced the Browns to be a little more aggressive in their play calling, given that they couldn’t trust their kicker.
Boswell improves to 36/39 on the year and remains perfect on extra points. In my book, he is the team’s MVP. Even with the resurgence of Wilson, TJ Watt continuing to do TJ Watt things, and some other names you could make the argument for, it has to be Boswell.
(Featured photo of Scotty Miller by Justin Berl/Getty Images)
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