Pittsburgh Steelers win over Browns not enough for AFC north title, playoff bye – NFL Recap
The Pittsburgh Steelers came out victorious against the Cleveland Browns with the final score of 13-9 to their favour in the closely fought and finished game on past Sunday.
The main highlight of their performance was Isaac Redman’s 7 yards run in third quarter that took their score to 12 points in the third quarter. It ended as the turning point of the game until the last minute.
Despite that their star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger the Big Ben made it to the side he apparently felt uncomfortable in his plays. His limited mobility especially prevented him playing freely. He went for 23 out of total 40 passes for overall 221 yards.
This was the Steelers 16th win in the total 17 games that they have played against the Browns. It was second straight in the current season.
Backed as all favourites the Steelers have gone into the game with the American Football Conference (AFC) north title and playoff bye on their mind but their poor performance on the field did not reflect that they were the ambitious side.
They have come closer to losing the game against the comparatively weaker side however somehow managed to hold onto to win in the closing moments of the game.
The win however ended short of them qualifying for the playoff bye and also crowing them as the AFC north champions. It could not have worked out for them even if their archrivals the Baltimore Ravens stood out to be loser against the Cincinnati Bengals.
With the victory over the Browns the Steelers now have ended up simply qualifying for the playoff through a wild card chance.
Their calculations and hopes ended up to their opposite as the Ravens not only got away with the tiebreaker advantage for having beaten the Steelers twice earlier the season but also dented their chance for the division title.
They might be regretting the ruining of their chances against the San Francisco 49ers a couple of weeks ago when they stood out as the leaders on the AFC north points table.
Meanwhile, it was another game for the Browns facing James Harrison and they remained watchful of him during the game. Harrison however was seen well-behaved and there was no incidence such as the Browns’ quarterback Colt McCoy’s head injury.
Harrison was involved in a helmet-to-helmet hit on McCoy. The player suffered concussion and is out of the season with uncertainty surrounding his career prospects.
He became Browns’ third player to have been knocked down by the Harrison in last two years. Two other players had also suffered concussions involving the Steelers linebacker. However he seems to have improved since a game-ban which he was handed down by
the NFL office as a penalty of his McCoy hit.
Tags: