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Despite a rivalry that Pittsburgh once dominated with ease, Cleveland has now surpassed them in superiority, a classic tale of two franchises headed in opposite directions.
As I sat there watching Cleveland explosively, then methodically take apart the team that had dominated them for years in Pittsburgh, a strange, yet somehow obvious and logical fact began to occur to me.
This wasn’t an upset. Not in the slightest.
When Pittsburgh marched into Cleveland to take on the once-hapless Browns coming off the greatest comeback by a road team in NFL history the week before, it was firmly as the underdogs. Not just because the last time we saw these two teams on the field together was while watching Pittsburgh epically blow a 27-3 halftime lead, while displaying a mind-boggling lack of discipline defensively, but simply because Cleveland is a better football team.
Better coached, better play calling, better preparation, better discipline, and better execution. Just better.
Better talent? Absolutely not. However, talent might win a football game here and there, but it doesn’t win seasons, a fact we’ve become all too familiar with here in Pittsburgh.
The Browns were hungry for this win, desperate to come out and prove they were for real in front of a home crowd that has watched that 31-10 whooping they put on Pittsburgh, swing the other way far too often over the past ten years. The Steelers haven’t been hungry for so long that starvation isn’t just a present state, but a culture around that locker room. It’s a team starved for discipline, leadership, direction, identity, and, in some cases, just plain competency.
As I wrote last week, competency is a term offensive coordinator Todd Haley probably never fully grasped, much like his understanding of how to run an NFL offense. In a display that was almost mind-numbingly ignorant, Haley simply refused to attack the Browns down the field throughout the entire first quarter, running the ball on 15 of 19 plays. It wasn’t that running the ball was a bad idea, it’s that there was absolutely zero effort to keep Cleveland honest by threatening them over the top, as all three first quarter pass completions were eight yards or less.
The height of Haley’s ignorance may have come in the first quarter with Pittsburgh driving for the go-ahead score in a 0-0 game. Criticized extensively last week for refusing to run the ball once on six plays inside the Jaguars’ 5-yard line, Haley flipped the script in Week 6, running the ball for gains of two, two and one yard on a 1st-and –goal from the Browns 7-yard line against a stacked Cleveland front. The Steelers’ lack of balance, a concept Haley obviously isn’t familiar with, allowed Cleveland to continue to stack the box against predictable play-calling, content to concede 3-4 yards on Pittsburgh rushes without giving up any of the big plays that victimized them in Week 1.
Speaking of big plays, Cleveland was chock full of them on Sunday, as tight end Jordan Cameron took advantage of a blown assignment by Troy Polamalu and the complete incompetence of Cortez Allen for two big pass plays of 42 and 51 yards in the second quarter. Unlike Pittsburgh, Cleveland made the most of their red zone opportunities in the first half, capitalizing on Cameron’s first long catch with an easy five-yard touchdown scamper by Isaiah Crowell, his third against Pittsburgh this season. After Cameron torched Cortez Allen down the head-scratchingly vacated middle of the field for a 14-3 lead, the Browns showed they could methodically dominate Pittsburgh at the line of scrimmage as well, marching the ball 85 yards on 11 plays for a 21-3 halftime lead. Which, against this spineless Pittsburgh team, essentially ended the contest, despite the 32.5 minutes of game time that remained.
Cleveland, in basically every way, did to Pittsburgh exactly what they were trying to do to the Browns. Run the football down the opponent’s throat, establish time of possession, pass as needed, but make it count when you do. Both offenses entered the game with the same mentality, but despite Pittsburgh’s clear advantage in talent at almost every position, the Browns ran the game plan to perfection while the Steelers fell on their proverbial faces.
Yes, this was a colossal failure by Pittsburgh in so many ways, as they were dominated in every aspect of football by a Browns team that has maybe a third of their talent, but ten times the amount of direction, heart and toughness.
You see, there isn’t anything that Pittsburgh is truly good at, not consistently anyway. It shouldn’t be that way, just like an offense with Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey shouldn’t be 26th in the NFL in scoring or enduring touchdown droughts of eight and (almost) six quarters this season. Those failures haven’t even come against strong defenses either. No, what I’m referring to is scoring only 24 points against a Buccaneers team that was torn limb-from-limb by Baltimore on Sunday, 10 offensive points against Jacksonville’s sieve of a unit last week, and 10 against a Browns’ team that was torched for 28 points in one half by the likes of Jake Locker and Charlie Whitehurst just a week prior.
There is a significant lack of talent for Pittsburgh defensively, especially at the key positions of cornerback, outside linebacker, and anywhere along the defensive line. Kevin Colbert’s disastrous drafts and free agent signings certainly give Dick Lebeau a little leeway, but there is no doubt his schemes have struggled to dominate the way they once did, especially in generating a consistent pass rush. While I think Lebeau needs to make adjustments and tailor his game plan to his present talent (or lack thereof), you also have to understand that when you make Jason Worilds and Cortez Allen two of the highest paid players on your team, this is the kind of production (or lack thereof) that you’re going to get.
The Browns on the other hand, are beginning to find themselves defensively despite injuries all over the unit. Already without defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin and starting the hobbled Joe Haden and Paul Kruger, the Browns took away the big play that Pittsburgh used to burn them in Week 1, not allowing a Steelers; gain of 30+ yards the entire game.
It’s the classic case of two franchises heading in opposite directions at the speed of sound. The Browns should be applauded for tailoring an excellent game plan for a limited quarterback, knowing exactly how, when and where to attack a weak Steelers defense, and executing that strategy to perfection.
While they are lauded for being victorious in a game they had every right to win, the Steelers will be left to ponder the fall of a once proud franchise that has plummeted to being the underdogs against a Cleveland team led by career journeyman Brian Hoyer and a banged-up defense that Pittsburgh torched as “the better team” just six weeks ago.
Those days are long gone Steelers fans. The expectation level in Pittsburgh under this current regime has reached a new low, the bar of mediocrity simply set too high the past two seasons.
See your team down there at the bottom of the AFC North, Steelers fans, in sole possession of last place?
Get used to it.
Link: http://profootballspot.com/_/nfl/af...lers/steelers-no-longer-the-better-team-r4674
As I sat there watching Cleveland explosively, then methodically take apart the team that had dominated them for years in Pittsburgh, a strange, yet somehow obvious and logical fact began to occur to me.
This wasn’t an upset. Not in the slightest.
When Pittsburgh marched into Cleveland to take on the once-hapless Browns coming off the greatest comeback by a road team in NFL history the week before, it was firmly as the underdogs. Not just because the last time we saw these two teams on the field together was while watching Pittsburgh epically blow a 27-3 halftime lead, while displaying a mind-boggling lack of discipline defensively, but simply because Cleveland is a better football team.
Better coached, better play calling, better preparation, better discipline, and better execution. Just better.
Better talent? Absolutely not. However, talent might win a football game here and there, but it doesn’t win seasons, a fact we’ve become all too familiar with here in Pittsburgh.
The Browns were hungry for this win, desperate to come out and prove they were for real in front of a home crowd that has watched that 31-10 whooping they put on Pittsburgh, swing the other way far too often over the past ten years. The Steelers haven’t been hungry for so long that starvation isn’t just a present state, but a culture around that locker room. It’s a team starved for discipline, leadership, direction, identity, and, in some cases, just plain competency.
As I wrote last week, competency is a term offensive coordinator Todd Haley probably never fully grasped, much like his understanding of how to run an NFL offense. In a display that was almost mind-numbingly ignorant, Haley simply refused to attack the Browns down the field throughout the entire first quarter, running the ball on 15 of 19 plays. It wasn’t that running the ball was a bad idea, it’s that there was absolutely zero effort to keep Cleveland honest by threatening them over the top, as all three first quarter pass completions were eight yards or less.
The height of Haley’s ignorance may have come in the first quarter with Pittsburgh driving for the go-ahead score in a 0-0 game. Criticized extensively last week for refusing to run the ball once on six plays inside the Jaguars’ 5-yard line, Haley flipped the script in Week 6, running the ball for gains of two, two and one yard on a 1st-and –goal from the Browns 7-yard line against a stacked Cleveland front. The Steelers’ lack of balance, a concept Haley obviously isn’t familiar with, allowed Cleveland to continue to stack the box against predictable play-calling, content to concede 3-4 yards on Pittsburgh rushes without giving up any of the big plays that victimized them in Week 1.
Speaking of big plays, Cleveland was chock full of them on Sunday, as tight end Jordan Cameron took advantage of a blown assignment by Troy Polamalu and the complete incompetence of Cortez Allen for two big pass plays of 42 and 51 yards in the second quarter. Unlike Pittsburgh, Cleveland made the most of their red zone opportunities in the first half, capitalizing on Cameron’s first long catch with an easy five-yard touchdown scamper by Isaiah Crowell, his third against Pittsburgh this season. After Cameron torched Cortez Allen down the head-scratchingly vacated middle of the field for a 14-3 lead, the Browns showed they could methodically dominate Pittsburgh at the line of scrimmage as well, marching the ball 85 yards on 11 plays for a 21-3 halftime lead. Which, against this spineless Pittsburgh team, essentially ended the contest, despite the 32.5 minutes of game time that remained.
Cleveland, in basically every way, did to Pittsburgh exactly what they were trying to do to the Browns. Run the football down the opponent’s throat, establish time of possession, pass as needed, but make it count when you do. Both offenses entered the game with the same mentality, but despite Pittsburgh’s clear advantage in talent at almost every position, the Browns ran the game plan to perfection while the Steelers fell on their proverbial faces.
Yes, this was a colossal failure by Pittsburgh in so many ways, as they were dominated in every aspect of football by a Browns team that has maybe a third of their talent, but ten times the amount of direction, heart and toughness.
You see, there isn’t anything that Pittsburgh is truly good at, not consistently anyway. It shouldn’t be that way, just like an offense with Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell, Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, David DeCastro and Maurkice Pouncey shouldn’t be 26th in the NFL in scoring or enduring touchdown droughts of eight and (almost) six quarters this season. Those failures haven’t even come against strong defenses either. No, what I’m referring to is scoring only 24 points against a Buccaneers team that was torn limb-from-limb by Baltimore on Sunday, 10 offensive points against Jacksonville’s sieve of a unit last week, and 10 against a Browns’ team that was torched for 28 points in one half by the likes of Jake Locker and Charlie Whitehurst just a week prior.
There is a significant lack of talent for Pittsburgh defensively, especially at the key positions of cornerback, outside linebacker, and anywhere along the defensive line. Kevin Colbert’s disastrous drafts and free agent signings certainly give Dick Lebeau a little leeway, but there is no doubt his schemes have struggled to dominate the way they once did, especially in generating a consistent pass rush. While I think Lebeau needs to make adjustments and tailor his game plan to his present talent (or lack thereof), you also have to understand that when you make Jason Worilds and Cortez Allen two of the highest paid players on your team, this is the kind of production (or lack thereof) that you’re going to get.
The Browns on the other hand, are beginning to find themselves defensively despite injuries all over the unit. Already without defensive tackle Ahtyba Rubin and starting the hobbled Joe Haden and Paul Kruger, the Browns took away the big play that Pittsburgh used to burn them in Week 1, not allowing a Steelers; gain of 30+ yards the entire game.
It’s the classic case of two franchises heading in opposite directions at the speed of sound. The Browns should be applauded for tailoring an excellent game plan for a limited quarterback, knowing exactly how, when and where to attack a weak Steelers defense, and executing that strategy to perfection.
While they are lauded for being victorious in a game they had every right to win, the Steelers will be left to ponder the fall of a once proud franchise that has plummeted to being the underdogs against a Cleveland team led by career journeyman Brian Hoyer and a banged-up defense that Pittsburgh torched as “the better team” just six weeks ago.
Those days are long gone Steelers fans. The expectation level in Pittsburgh under this current regime has reached a new low, the bar of mediocrity simply set too high the past two seasons.
See your team down there at the bottom of the AFC North, Steelers fans, in sole possession of last place?
Get used to it.
Link: http://profootballspot.com/_/nfl/af...lers/steelers-no-longer-the-better-team-r4674
