by CLEVELAND, OH –
The Cleveland Browns moved to 3-1 on the season with a thrilling 27-24 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers tonight at Huntington Bank stadium. This was their third win in a row to come on a defensive stop after Deshaun Watson led drives to take the lead for good. This was their 8th straight win on Thursday night football and 5th straight at home over the Steelers.
It was a special night for Watson as this was his first win over the hated Steelers since he arrived in Cleveland in 2022. As crazy as it may seem, the Browns used a different starting quarterback in all of the meetings 2022-2026 to beat them at home, but Watson was either hurt or suspended for all those games.
He made up for it tonight by going 24 of 33 for 268 yards with a touchdown while also turning the ball over twice. Once on a fumble and once on a tipped ball interception that could have been an easily called interference if not tipped 40 yards prior in the air. It is a silly rule.
Pittsburgh made the most of the second turnover as they were trailing 21-10 to start the fourth quarter and seemingly out of things until they play sparked them. They used it to go on a 6 play, 77-yard drive to cut the lead to 21-16 with 11 minutes still to play in regulation.
Watsons counterpart tonight was the ageless veteran Aaron Rodgers who managed to bounce back from poor line play and 5 sacks to finish with 3 touchdowns and 299 yards. This went along with two interceptions as well, one to close the game on an ill fated short armed Hail Mary.
There was heat coming into this one on the Cleveland Browns run game and Quinshon Judkins answered the call with 53 yards on 17 carries, scoring once. He also did damage catching the ball out of the backfield with 6 catches for 43 yards. Judkins still isn’t putting up elite numbers but has proven to be good in spots when they need him to be.
The top targets tonight for Watson were his incredible rookie duo of Denzel Boston and KC Concepion Jr. Boston pulled in 4 catches for 89 yards while Concepion had 5 catches for 64 yards. There wasn’t much a Jerry Jeaudy to speak off until the final drive when he caught two first down passes to finish with 3 catches and 36 yards overall on just 3 targets.
After the Steelers dominated the first quarter of possession with a drive of 17 plays that took nearly 10 minutes off the clock as they built a 7-0 lead, the second quarter was dominated by Cleveland. Following a long punt and a pick of Rodgers by Denzel Ward, Cleveland went on the attack.
The Browns turned the first Rodgers pick into a quick 4 play, 56-yard drive capped off by a beautiful 28 yard Jaleel McLaughlin run to tie the game. On the next Browns drive, it took only 4 plays and 74 yards on 2:10 to score on a Judkins dive play at the goal line. This drive was aided by a Watson to Boston 60-yard gain. Cleveland stayed hot by scoring on their third straight second quarter possession, with the scoring play courtesy of a scrambling Watson threading the needle to Harold Fannin Jr to bump the lead to 21-7.
After the third quarter saw 5 combined drives for 0 total points, the fourth was packed with action as the Browns answered two Steeler touchdown drives with two Andrew Szmyt field goals to win the game. The winner coming from 56 yards as the wind was at his back and actually made the coin toss decision mean something.
Cleveland will now have an extended break as they next play 10 days from now when they travel to New Jersey to take on the Jets. The 3-1 start to the season is their best start since 1994.
