Pittsburgh Steelers Team Grades: Le'Veon Bell Runs Wild, Steelers Break Losing Streak
By Danny Cox
The Pittsburgh Steelers wanted a win, plain and simple. They wanted to break a four-game losing streak and stay in contention to win the AFC North. Their dominating performance against the hapless Cleveland Browns (0-11) certainly helped them break their losing streak and put them back on the path towards a division title. .
It was a day where Ben Roethlisberger didn't need to throw on every down and the Steelers were able to win with hard-nosed defense, lack of turnovers on offense, and the legs of running back Le'Veon Bell. At the end of the day, they defeated the winless Browns 24-9 in impressive fashion and got themselves back into the divisional race.
Offense: A-
Big Ben had a decent day, but nothing too spectacular. He completed 23-of-36 passes for 167 yards and zero touchdowns. More importantly, he didn't turn the ball over or get sacked. Antonio Brown was his top target with eight receptions for 76 yards.
Pittsburgh's offense relied heavily on Bell, who also had eight receptions and finished the day with 55 yards receiving. His true work came on the ground, though, where he had 28 rushing attempts for 146 yards, one touchdown and zero turnovers.
Defense: A+
This is where this year's Pittsburgh team looked like the Steelers of old as they totally dominated the offense of the Browns. The Steelers knocked rookie quarterback Cody Kessler out of the game and he was replaced by Josh McCown, who fared a bit better, but was still harassed by the defense.
Pittsburgh finished the day with eight sacks, forced two turnovers and held the Browns to just 209 yards of total offense. The Browns rushed for just 33 yards of total offense and 13 of those yards came from the two quarterbacks while scrambling. The only bright spot for Cleveland was wide receiver Terrelle Pryor Sr. who had five receptions for 97 yards.
Special Teams: B
The return game was nonexistent. Antonio Brown had one punt return for seven yards and special teams did not return a single kickoff. Jordan Berry punted three times for an average of 50 yards per boot, but it was another member of special teams who really lit up the day.
Kicker Chris Boswell had 10 points on the day for the Steelers. He connected on his lone extra point and hit all three of his field goal attempts. Boswell nailed 32 and 33-yard attempts in the first half and then a 22-yard field goal in the third quarter.
Coaching: A
It appears the Steelers finally figured out how to solve those multiple small problems that head coach Mike Tomlin has been talking about. The running game showed up in a big way, as Le'Veon Bell pounded the Browns' defense and wore them down until they could do nothing further. That, in turn, took a lot of the pressure off of Roethlisberger.
Pittsburgh's defense was able to shut down the offense of the Browns. Their quarterbacks were hounded for a full 60 minutes. The Steelers can beat anyone if they can maintain this level of play and they will have a chance to build on this momentum when they visit the Indianapolis Colts next week.
