Last night’s game boils down to a series of questions… the answers to which must be able to tell us why the Steelers were upset and virtually knocked out of the AFC playoffs.
- Was there a home field advantage? I don’t think so. Not in the typical sense – until last night the Browns fans found it pretty hard to get behind their team, and no one could blame them. It was cold in Cleveland, and the Browns should be used to chilly December games – but the Steelers are no stranger to this weather, in fact, they are supposed to thrive on it.
- Is Brady Quinn a better quarterback then Big Ben/did he out play Large B Monday night? No and No. The 1st question is obvious, and really, so is the last. Quinn completed less than 33% of his passes, Roethlisberger managed 56% and more than double yardage.
- Do the Browns have a better receiving corps? There were only 90 yards to go around last night, and only 4 different players caught balls for the Browns. Santonio Holmes is emerging as a very solid performer and had as many catches (6) as Quinn had pass completions, and more yards (93) than the entire Cleveland receiving offense…. so, no. There were drops galore on both sides of the ball.
- What about the run game? Mendenhall is a quality RB, but he couldn’t really get anything going last night, coming in at around 3.4 YPC. The supplmentary rushers added little excitement. Meanwhile, the Browns lead rusher left the game early, and his CFL bred replacement didn’t do much better than Mendenhall at 3.6; he did however, break a huge run for a score. Josh Cribbs led the Browns with 87 yards on just 8 carries, most of his damage coming out of the wildcat. Is the Browns ground game any better? Nah, but they performed better last night. They also had more opportunities to run.
- Special Teams? This is where I noticed a big difference last night. The Steelers were consistently pinned inside their own 20, and Cribbs broke off one huge punt return (to the opponents 10 which somehow only netted a field goal), and managed to pick up some decent yardage on most punts that he fielded. The field position battle was won handily by the Browns last night.
- Defense? The Browns came into this game ranked 32nd in the league in total defense. Absolutely dead stinking last, meanwhile the Steelers, even without Polamalu had managed to post some respectable defensive numbers (though they obviously aren’t the same without him). Last night, the Steelers held the Browns to just over 200 yards total offense, the aforementioned 30%ish completion rating, and 13 points. They played well defensively. However, the Browns – led by defensive coordinator Rob Ryan’s brazen, intelligent playcalling were all over the Steelers receivers in the secondary, and sacked Ben Roethlisberger 8 times!! It seemed like on every important snap (especially 3rd down) they were on the quarterback ready to take him down, Pittsburgh’s offense had no chance to get any rhythm going. This, unequivocally, is where the game was gone. Excellent play calling, sharp execution.
2 weeks ago following a tough loss to Baltimore with their quarterback on the sidelines, I felt very good about Pittsburgh’s playoff chances with two ‘cakewalks’ coming up against the Raiders and Browns. After dropping these two games in very different ways, the Steelers suddenly look like a team with a ton of problems.
Last night, Browns fans got their 2009 SuperBowl. While the Steelers watched theirs go up in smoke.