The Cleveland Browns gave the Steelers all they could handle on Thursday night. It looked like the Browns might pull off the upset up until the final minutes, but quarterback Ben Roethlisberger came back from what looked like it could be a season ending injury to ice the victory 14-3.
Roethlisberger was sacked in the second quarter and went down hard, bending awkwardly and feeling like his leg was broken.
“It was one of the most painful things I ever felt,” Roethlisberger said. “It felt like the middle of my leg was just, cracked … it felt like my foot was outside of my leg.”
Charlie Batch came in to finish out the first half, going 0 for 2 in his brief spell in relief. Roethlisberger got an x-ray at half time which showed nothing was broken, and he returned in the second half in obvious pain, but effective enough to lead the team to victory.
In the second half, hobbled by the injury, he was 8 of 12 for 178 yards and a TD, which iced the game. For the whole game, he was 16 of 21 for 280 yards with 2 TDs and 1 INT.
The game was in doubt up until the final minutes. Pittsburgh was clinging to a narrow 7-3 lead when Cleveland got the ball back with seven minutes left. They drove deep into Pittsburgh territory, helped by a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty on James Harrison for a late hit on QB Colt McCoy. The hit left McCoy stunned on the field for several moments, and he had to leave the game.
Backup Seneca Wallace guided the Browns to the Pittsburgh 5-yards line with first-and-goal, with the winning TD only five yards away. But the Browns put McCoy back into the game even though he didn’t seem fully ready. He was flagged for intentional grounding on second down, and then through an interception in the end zone on third down, snuffing out the drive.
“I just didn’t get enough on it, underthrew it and their guy made a nice play and that was basically the game,” McCoy said.
Pittsburgh got the ball back at the 20 –yard line with 3:11 to go and Roethlisberger hit Antonio Brown for a 79-yard touchdown to lock up the victory. It was a gutsy performance by Roethlisberger, who said after the touchdown, “I’m proud of him and glad he scored because I wouldn’t have been able to make it down there if we had to run another play.”
For the Steelers, the victory improves their record to 10-3 and puts them in a solid position for the playoffs, and keeps the pressure on the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC Central title. Whichever team comes out of the Central is likely to get the number 2 seed in the AFC and a first round bye, and since the Ravens swept the Steelers in their two meetings, Pittsburgh is going to have to win the title outright.
For the Browns, it was another disappointment in a season of disappointments, as their record dropped to 4-9, and they were once again not able to score enough despite a gutsy performance by their defense which held the Steelers to just 7 points for the first 56 minutes. The Browns have only scored 20 points once all season, and will need to make some offensive upgrades in the offseasn.
