The league’s first snow game of the season appeared to be a low-scoring bout at first, but a fourth-quarter thriller ensued in the harsh conditions as the Cleveland Browns upset the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-19, in a wild AFC North battle.
The Browns moved to 3-8 on the season, while the Steelers are now 8-3.
High winds, a temperature that felt below 30 degrees and tons of snow were dumped on Huntington Bank Field throughout this contest, and both teams were attempting to get acclimated to the conditions that continued to get worse as time ticked on the clock.
The Steelers found themselves down two scores after Jameis Winston powered his way into the end zone on fourth-and-goal to make it 18-6 after a failed two-point conversion.
However, Russell Wilson and the Steelers’ offense, which had not scored a touchdown all game to this point, knew it was now or never early in the fourth quarter to get moving.
After seven plays, Jaylen Warren scored on the ground from three yards out to make it 18-13, with a touchdown all that was needed to take the lead.
First, the Steelers’ defense had to get the ball back from Winston and company, and while a punt would have sufficed, Nick Herbig had something else in mind.
On the second play of the drive, Herbig strip-sacked Winston and the ball was recovered on Cleveland’s 27-yard line. Three plays later, Wilson threw a dot to Calvin Austin in the back of the end zone to make it a 19-18 game.
However, the Browns, with fans braving the weather in the stands to cheer them on, found life on their final drive of the game, where Nick Chubb scored his second touchdown of the game with 57 seconds left on the clock to go up five points after the two-point conversion failed.
Chubb, who found the end zone with four minutes left in the second quarter, as well, finished the game with 59 yards on 20 rush attempts.
His score, however, would not have come without Jerry Jeudy hauling in a fourth-and-3 pass to move the chains earlier in the drive, while also going for 15 yards on third-and-6 to land on Pittsburgh’s 15-yard line to set up Chubb’s score. Jeudy finished the game with a team-high 85 yards on six catches.
Wilson had a last-ditch effort to try to retake the lead, attempting to keep the Steelers’ five-game win streak alive. But his efforts were all for naught. He finished the game with 261 yards passing on 20-of-26 with his touchdown to Austin, who had 69 yards on just two catches.
For the Browns, Winston was 18-of-27 through the air for 219 yards.
