It was about the likely final home game for Ben Rothlisberger, but there is also a chance that it could have been the final game of the Cleveland career for Baker Mayfield, who was simply terrible yet again in a 26-14 Browns loss.
Mayfield did throw two touchdown passes but he was intercepted twice, sacked nine times, and completed well under half his passes ( sixteen of thirty-two) in yet another dreadful defeat in a disappointing Browns season.
Donovan Peoples-Jones led the receivers with 76 yards and Nick Chubb paced the running backs with 58 yards.
The Browns clinched a losing season in the loss at 7-9 and will finish the season at home against the new AFC North champion Bengals.
Brownie Bits
1) Look, Baker Mayfield was terrible.
Completing one of his first ten throws, Mayfield was inaccurate as usual with his arm but even worse on a night that the Steelers seemed to have everyone down to the waterboy putting heat on Mayfield from the pass rush, Mayfield was almost mulish in his stubbornness to not throw the football away.
2) The irony in the above statement is that Mayfield seems to have little problem throwing the football away any other time but I guess the argument there would be that at least Mayfield is trying to hit his receivers for his usual passes into the sideline.
3) Still, it was not all Baker Mayfield's fault as he was sacked nine times and seemed to be hit on every play.
Blame Kevin Stefanski for his stubbornness in refusing to give rookie tackle James Hudson any kind of help at all with T.J. Watt, who sacked Mayfield four times alone.
Stefanski didn't keep a tight end, a fullback, a running back- anyone that could have given Hudson a hand in trying to cope with Watt.
Stefanski not only allowed Mayfield to take a relentless beating, but his decision to leave Hudson alone against Watt might also have destroyed Hudson's confidence to the point of destroying a rookie's psyche to play this game- Watt was that overwhelming!
4) Kevin Stefanski suggested that that the underuse of Nick Chubb was due to injured ribs to explain why Chubb carried the ball only twelve times on the evening with only four in the first half.
I still wonder if that was truly the case as Chubb was on the field for a bit on each of the Browns final two drives, having a Baker Mayfield pass to him wind up in the dirt and Chubb was in the backfield from the one-yard line as a decoy with Mayfield flipping a one-yard pass to Harrison Bryant for the final Cleveland score.
5) Pittsburgh entered the game at the bottom of the league against the run so even if Chubb was dealing with injuries, why not lean on D'Ernest Johnson rather than leaning on Mayfield so often?
6) For the third week in a row, the Browns anemic offense wasted a pretty good defensive performance.
Take away the late game garbage touchdown run by Najee Harris as the Browns had to sell out to stop the final drive and once Harris broke through the line there was no one there to stop him and the Browns defense allowed only one touchdown in the game, a first-quarter drive.
7) The Browns' offensive line was supposed to be the strength of their offense but even if you don't consider the nine sacks allowed, the line still was pushed around physically and committed multiple holding penalties and false starts.
A second-half holding penalty on Wyatt Teller seemed to be the football version of a basketball flop trying to draw a charging foul but otherwise, there seemed to be little to complain about.
8) One criticism of the Browns handling of Baker Mayfield has been the complaint that he has few offensive standouts to throw to.
Most of that is true but the Browns are paying Austin Hooper a lot of money to be the center of a tight end oriented passing game and yet Hooper's yard after catch numbers are next to zero and he drops far too many passes for a what is supposed to be a dependable possession receiver.
I'd rate Hooper as a disappointment thus far and I'd wonder about his future if he wasn't scheduled to receive 13.2 million in each of the next two seasons,w which means if Hooper would be released the Browns would have to eat almost twenty million of dead cap space.
9) The Browns lost both Denzel Ward and Greedy Williams to injury in this game just as they returned Greg Newsome to the lineup.
Newsome had a strong game as did Grant Delpit and one thing to be pleased about this season is the development of a secondary that was loaded with questions entering the season and turned out to have a pretty good season.
10) Dustin Colquitt's twenty-one-yard punt in the fourth quarter handed the Steelers a short field that would result in a Chris Boswell field goal which returned the Steelers' lead to two scores.
Colquitt had punted well since joining the team but his evening against the Steelers should at least make the Browns think about punting challengers in the 2022 training camp.
11) Baker Mayfield said that he will undergo surgery on his left shoulder for a torn labrum and I'd say he's unlikely to play against the Bengals with nothing to play for.
I'd bet that Case Keenum gets the start but I'd like to see the younger Nick Mullens get the nod.
Mullens did well in the loss to the Raiders and I'd like to see another start to see what the Browns think of his chances to stick around for the 2022 season.
12) I have had an article in progress for a few weeks on the Browns situation with Baker Mayfield and I keep having to update it.
I hope to finish it and have a critical post on how a season with high expectations has disappointed Cleveland fans for the second time in three seasons.
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