Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Browns Fans and welcome to week 17 of the season. Sunday the Browns return to Huntington Bank Field to take on the much disliked, OK hated, Pittsburgh Steelers, game time is 12:00 noon CST and the ChicagoLand Browns Backers/Northside Dawg Pound will meet up at Burkes’ Public House 5401 N. Broadway to cheer the Browns on to victory. This is the second meeting of the season with Pittsburgh, in week 6 the Browns lost to the Steelers 23-9 with Dillion Gabriel completing 29 of 52 passes for 221 yards with no TD’s or interceptions and the Browns rushing for just 65 yards on the day. Steelers QB Aaron Rogers completed 21 of 36 passes for 235 yards with 2 TD’s and no interceptions or sacks. This will be Shedeur Sanders’ first experience working against the Steelers 3-4 defense which will challenge his ability, post snap, to identify who’s rushing him, where they are coming from and what type of coverage are they playing. To have a chance to be successful against Pittsburgh’s pass rush, ranked 16th in sack rate, Sanders will need to continue to reduce his time to throw from his league high average of 3.25 seconds to the 3.0 seconds he had last week against Buffalo. Fortunately for him, 4-time All Pro and 2021 Defensive Player of the Year T.J. Watt will miss the game as he recovers from a collapsed lung. Watt was responsible for 8 of the Steelers 47 sacks on the season. The game will feature an interesting contrast in NFL experience between important players for both teams. The Steelers will start at least 5 players with 10 years or more experience in the NFL including QB Aaron Rogers (20 seasons), TE Adam Thielan (12 season), DT Cameron Heyward (15 seasons), S Jalen Ramsey (10 seasons) and OG Isaac Seumalo (10 seasons). While the Browns are expected to play at least 7 rookies including QB Shedeur Sanders, TE Harold Fannin JR., RB Dylan Sampson, WR Isaiah Bond, LB Carson Schwesinger, DT Mason Graham and RB Raheim Sanders. The Steelers come into the game riding a 3 game winning streak during which they’ve scored 27, 28 and 29 points, however they are 0-3 over their last 3 games against the Browns at Huntington Bank Field. DE Myles Garrett will be looking to get the 1 sack he needs to break the single season sack record against a Steelers offense that’s given up 27 sacks so far this season. Garrett has a league leading 22 sacks and 32 tackles for loss (TFL) this season and 13 sacks in his 15 games against the Steelers in his career. Rogers currently has the 2nd quickest time to throw among starting QB’s (2.6 seconds) and 69% of his completions are for 9 or less yards with only 3.4 air yards per pass, lowest in the NFL. His average depth of throw is only 6.4 yards per pass and only 24% of his completions have been for 10 or more yards. Overall, Rogers is completing 66.7% of his passes averaging 6.9 yards per pass with 23 TD’s against 7 interceptions for a QB rating of 98.2. He will be missing his #1 receiver DK Metcalf who’s serving a 2 game suspension after apparently hitting a fan in the stands during last week’s game. Metcalf has 59 catches for 850 yards (twice as many as any other Steeler) with 6 TD’s while averaging 14.4 yards per catch this season. With Metcalf out for the game Rogers will be relying even more on RB’s Kenneth Gainwell who leads the team with 62 receptions averaging 6.6 yards per catch with 3 TD’s and Jaylen Warren who has 35 receptions with 2 receiving TD’s along with TE’s Darnell Washington who is massive at 6.6” 311 lbs. and Pat Freiermuth who has 35 catches with 4 TD’s. Pittsburgh’s rushing game has undergone a dramatic recent improvement. After averaging 89 rushing yards per game over their first 12 weeks they’ve averaged 228.5 yards rushing in their last 2 games against Miami and Detroit. Jaylen Warren who’s averaging 4.5 yards per rush and Kenneth Gainwell who’s averaging 4.9 yards per rush handle most of the running duties. The Browns 2nd ranked defense (277.8 yards per game) will need to consistently tackle well in space with Washington, Gainwell and Warren all averaging more than 7 yards after a catch. Despite last week’s loss to Buffalo the Browns are still #1 in pass defense, giving up 164 yards per game and #1 in sack rate at 10.7%. Overall Pittsburgh is 11th in scoring averaging 24.3 points per game and 27th in total offense gaining 302 yards per game. Opponents are converting 42% of their 3rd down attempts. If Shedeur Sanders can figure out the Steelers defense he has a chance for some big gains against a Steelers defense ranked 30th in the NFL giving up 250.5 yards per game through the air. They are also 28th in total defense surrendering 364 yards per game. With TJ Watt out for the game Pittsburgh will be relying on DE/LB Alex Highsmith (6.5 sacks 37 QB pressures and 11 TFL), DE/LB Nick Herbig (6.5 sacks 42 QB pressures and 12 TFL), 3 time All Pro DT Cameron Heyward (4 sacks 48 QB pressures) and CB Joey Porter Jr. ( 47% completions allowed and 11 pass break-ups) to anchor their defense. They are also #4 in takeaways averaging 1.6 per game. One interesting potential aspect of this game is if the Steelers lock up the AFC North title with a Baltimore loss or tie against Green Bay on Saturday they may start Mason Rudolph at QB against the Browns, giving Garrett the opportunity to set the sack record against Rudolph who you’ll remember got into an end of game scuffle with Garrett who hit him on the head with his helmet and Garrett later accusing Rudolph of using a racial slur during the game.
SEE YOU SUNDAY GO BROWNS…..GO CAVS