It all happened on the night of January 11th, 2021. It was the type of event where you had to pinch yourself to make sure you weren’t in a bad dream. To the millions that were viewing, you were either left speechless or, if you were a fan of the right team, you erupted in cheers. Have you figured it out yet? This is the story of the one and only dumpster fire of a game; the Pittsburgh Steelers versus the Cleveland Browns.
To understand how bad this collapse was, we need to start with some before game statistics. In past meetings between the two teams at Heinz Field, Steel City has ruled this matchup. In fact, the last seventeen games the Browns played at Heinz Field had ended in a loss. That’s one game off of a full undefeated season. If that stat wasn’t convincing enough, try on this one for size. Pittsburgh’s starting quarterback, Ben Rothlisberger, had a ludicrous record of 23-2-1 (.904 win percentage) against this divisional team in his career.
To play devil’s advocate, say you’re still not convinced that Steel City isn’t favored heavily in this matchup. Due to the world that we live in, Cleveland took a huge blow to both their players and coaching staff prior to last night’s matchup. They had to play without four coaches, one of which included their head coach Kevin Stefanski. Stefanski was the regular play caller throughout the year for the men in orange. To add more salt in the wound, every player that the Browns were missing were key parts of their plan of attack. This included a starting offensive lineman and two starting defensive corners.
If you are a betting man and you see all of the statistics and news blurbs play out before you, is there a doubt that you would pick Pittsburgh? It should be a LOCK, if there ever was one, right? Only two losses in Big Ben’s time, and a record of seventeen straight Heinz Field wins. Taking candy from a baby is what it seemed.
What ensued on Sunday Night Football was a sight to be seen, but not for the right reasons. Unlike most games, this was a sh** show right from the first snap of the game. Many NFL football games start with a lackluster, pace-setting play. It doesn’t matter if it is a run or pass. Most teams are hesitant to take a huge risk on play one. After all, all twenty-two men on the field are simultaneously getting acclimated to the flow of the game in one snap. Unfortunately, this is not exactly what happened at the start of this game. Instead, ten-year veteran Markice Pouncey sent his first snap airborne and CLEAR over the head of Ben Rothlisberger. The ball rolled to the end zone, where the Browns recovered. Within four seconds, the game had given Cleveland a 7-0 lead and left millions without words, including the announcers of the game.
Once every viewer had time to properly process, I can only imagine the thoughts went like this:
“Oh it is only a 7-0 lead.”
“There is still a lot of game left.”
“Alright, let’s just hit the reset button.”
“No big deal, they can tie it up 7-7 with a solid drive right here.”
All hopeful thoughts for a tightly contested matchup were put by the wayside after the end of the first quarter. Pittsburgh continued to “struggle” to put it mildly. They had four first half turnovers, which led to an immediate 28-0 deficit. Now, I could go on about how the Steelers slowly tried to claw their way back in it, but to tell the honest truth only one team has ever come back from a 28 point deficit. Final score: 48-37 Browns. Sad to say that I am the Steelers fan in this story and not the Browns fan. I hope this leads to Pittsburgh’s epiphany to move on from Big Ben. His glory days are over and his career is waning.
I will leave you with this. I now hope the Buffalo Bills can win it all.
#BillsMafia
This article was written by Drue. To contact Drue, email digtalzsports@ gmail.com