Same shit, different coach: Browns beat Steelers 27-24 on a 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left

Same shit, different coach: Browns beat Steelers 27-24 on a 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left

By Wilson Simons

   The Steelers spent the whole night watching the Browns try to give this game away, and they still found a way to lose it.

    Cleveland kicked a 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to beat Pittsburgh 27-24 on Thursday night, minutes after Aaron Rodgers tied it with a touchdown drive and a two-point tush push. The Browns committed at least 12 penalties, lost their best defensive player in the first quarter and turned the ball over twice. None of it mattered. Pittsburgh is now 0-10 in road divisional Thursday night games in the Super Bowl era. Seventy-six years became 77.

    The Steelers fall to 2-2. The Browns are 3-1.

    For one quarter, Pittsburgh looked like a team that had figured something out. T.J. Watt came in untouched to help force a three-and-out, and the offense answered with a 17-play, 10-minute drive that silenced a hostile crowd. Jaylen Warren broke tackles at the line and kept the chains moving, and Roman Wilson finished it on a 12-yard jet pass. Browns defensive tackle Mason Graham, the guy I picked as the key to this game, got rolled up by Zach Frazier on that drive and never returned. For as much as I hated the Mike McCarthy hire, the scripted openings have been fantastic.

    As soon as things start to look good, they fall just the same. Denzel Ward picked off Rodgers after rookie Max Iheanachor got pushed back into the pocket. Two plays later, Jaleel McLaughlin broke two arm tackles for a 29-yard touchdown while Rayshawn Jenkins stood there like he'd been poured into cement. Around then, Derrick Harmon was carted to the locker room, and that mattered more than any single play. Last season, the Steelers allowed 96 rushing yards a game with Harmon and 191.2 in the four games he missed. Without him, the defense looked slow and lost.

    Denzel Boston ran free for 60 yards when Daylen Everette played it like he had safety help that wasn't there, and Quinshon Judkins punched it in to make it 14-7. Chris Boswell then missed from 48, his third miss in four games. Jamel Dean went down. The Browns kept running screens, the Steelers kept missing tackles, and Harold Fannin Jr. caught a touchdown just before halftime. A late Boswell field goal made it 21-10 at the break.

    The offense stayed stuck in the third quarter. The line was giving Rodgers time, but nobody could get open, and when the rush did come, he didn't feel it. After starting 3-for-4 on third down, Pittsburgh went 0-for-4.

    What kept them alive was the same thing that has kept them alive for a decade: Watt. He read a slip screen mid-rush and knocked the ball away from Judkins, then baited Deshaun Watson into keeping it on a read option and punched it out of his hands. I never want to hear another word about T.J.'s contract being too much. Without him, this is a blowout.

    Early in the fourth, Jack Sawyer tipped a Watson pass that Robert Spears-Jennings intercepted. DK Metcalf followed with a 43-yard catch, and Rodgers rolled right and found Darnell Washington for a 21-yard touchdown. The two-point try failed, leaving it 21-16. Cleveland answered with a 44-yard field goal after Watson broke tackles from Jaquan Brisker, Watt and Cam Heyward, making it 24-16 with 6:42 left.

    With 3:32 to go, Rodgers finally looked like Rodgers. He hit Wilson for 12, then threw two perfect balls to Metcalf down the sideline to get into the red zone. The drive nearly died on fourth-and-10 before a Browns pass interference flag put the ball at the 2. Rodgers found Pat Freiermuth for the touchdown and pushed in the two-pointer himself. Tied at 24 with 1:36 left.

    The Browns needed about 35 yards and got them. Jerry Jeudy caught a 17-yarder while Asante Samuel Jr. celebrated like it was incomplete, and KC Concepcion's slant set up the 56-yarder. With 10 seconds and a timeout left, the Steelers skipped the quick sideline throw and went straight for a Hail Mary. It didn't work, and I still don't understand why they didn't try to get closer first.

    Here's the part that will sting all weekend: if Boswell makes that 48-yarder, Cleveland's last-second kick doesn't win the game. It sends it to overtime. Last week, Cincinnati's special teams handed Pittsburgh 10 points in a three-point win. This week, Pittsburgh's own kicker gave three back.

    The defense has no pass rush unless Watt creates it himself, it can't tackle, and its secondary is held together with duct tape and string. That's what happens when you trade your best corner at midnight before a road division game and then lose Dean in the second quarter.

    I predicted Browns 20, Steelers 17. I was right about who won and wrong about everything else.

    Four weeks into the McCarthy era, I'm struggling to see the difference between his team and Mike Tomlin's. Same shit, different year. The Steelers get extra rest before hosting the Colts on Oct. 11, and they'll need every day of it.