This short takes version will be a little discourse on the special case games played in the first round of this present season’s end of the season games. That is until I get to my group’s down. The Steelers were humiliated on their field by the Cleveland Browns and now remain at home for the rest of the postseason.
Embarrassing is an extraordinary word for that amazing Browns triumph and there is a lot to say about the condition of the Steelers and this dreary misfortune particularly coming from a fanatic Steelers fan. Thus, that game I’ll put something aside for last.
Baltimore 20, Tennessee 13. Lamar Jackson is ablaze. He destroyed the Titans like their protection was swiss cheddar. 2,000-yard rusher Derrick Henry was appeared by a quarterback and held to an all out surging yards finish that was a long ways from his normal this season. As far as I might be concerned, Baltimore is the most frightening group in the end of the season games that is as yet alive. They get Buffalo straightaway and on the off chance that I were a Bills fan, I’d be a lot of anxious.
New Orleans 21, Chicago 9. This was a normal outcome and sets up a confrontation that may possibly be known as the “geriatric bowl.” Tom Brady versus Drew Brees making that game a matchup between the two most seasoned quarterbacks to meet in a season finisher game ever. Like Ben Roethlisberger yet maybe not similarly, Brees is giving indications of wearing out. It will be intriguing to see who shows their age more one weekend from now, Brees or Brady. For the Bears, strong safeguard yet no offense. Presently they have a quarterback debate in the feeling of how would they manage Mitch Trubisky.
Bison 27, Indianapolis 24. This may be Philip Rivers’ last hurrah in any event in the postseason. You will peruse more about Rivers when I expound on the Steelers game beneath. Yet, the Colts are out and the Bills proceed onward yet they will have their hands full in the divisional round.
Los Angeles Rams 30, Seattle 20. You need to contemplate whether having a full twelfth man in the arena would have had an effect for the Seahawks. They started the season as one of the top picks to address the NFC in the Super Bowl and eventually, Russell Wilson’s expectations for a M.V.P. grant came slamming down as his group leaves the end of the season games. I think the stopping point for L.A. comes in the divisional round when they need to play Green Bay.
Tampa Bay 31, Washington 23. Praise to Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke who was abandoned and told he would be the beginning quarterback simply a day prior to the opening shot. He almost pulled off driving the steamed of Tom Brady and the Bucs with 306 yards passing. For a group that came into the end of the season games with a losing record, The Washington Football Team didn’t give that impression of losing by only one score and a two-point change.
Cleveland 48, Pittsburgh 37. Presently we get to perhaps the ugliest game I’ve at any point seen my Pittsburgh Steelers play. Altogether appalling. Humiliating. Disillusioning. Embarrassing. As a matter of first importance, JuJu Smith-Schuster needs to grow up and keep his mouth shut. Recently he made it a propensity for moving on adversaries’ logos at midfield when out and about. Presently, this previous week he expressed that the “Browns are as yet the Browns.” It caused issues down the road for him no doubt and he’s getting assailed everywhere on the web by various media types.
As he enters the slow time of year he does as such as a following free specialist. It is safe to say that he merits bringing back? I say no. Not with the rise of Chase Claypool and the further advancement of Dionte Johnson. The Steelers need to restore their way of life as a simple, hardcore, abrasive football crew and the softies should be chipped away, starting with Smith-Schuster. What Steelers Nation expects is a beat up type group and whether that can be reestablished stays not yet clear and suspicious while Mike Tomlin as lead trainer doesn’t epitomize the growling, spitting personality that Bill Cowher brought to the sidelines as tossed Noll the dictator did before him.
All that smack you in the mouth, being the more forceful group, run the ball down the adversary’s throat was no place to be seen on Sunday night nor anytime this season as the Steelers once-powerful guard yielded the five hostile scores Cleveland scored and permitted the Browns to get in field position to add two field objectives.
At that point there was Pittsburgh’s lamentable offense. 52 yards surging as a group. Scratch Chubb bested that all alone. Kareem Hunt added 48 more. Where is Jerome Bettis when you need him? Yet, all the spotlight for the offense falls on the shoulders of Ben Roethlisberger. He gave a few indications of life when he brought the Steelers from behind to crush the Colts half a month back yet beside that, in the last six or seven rounds of the period, Big Ben looked old, out of sync, wrong, and simply normal.
All that has prompted the hot inquiry of the week. “Is Ben Roethlisberger done?” Many have seen the picture of Big Ben on the seat after the game, at that point joined by Maurkice Pouncy while every other person was at midfield doing their regular meet and welcome and congrats by Steelers players to the Browns players. The picture is never-ending. A crestfallen Roethlisberger resembled a lost soul. In the end, he would come to tears.
That picture of Big Ben for me spelled the end. I can basically not see him returning for a tenous long 16-game season for an eighteenth year. The greater inquiry is if the Steelers bring him back. Following the game, Roethlisberger said, “I trust the Steelers need me back if that is the manner in which we go.” He has one more year on his agreement yet that ought not be a factor if Mike Tomlin and the front office need to change course.
The issue for the front office and Tomlin’s staff is on the off chance that they would like to take another way, who succeeds Roethlisberger? It can’t be Mason Rudolph, He is simply not adequate. Disregard Joshua Dobbs. He was taken back to the group only for reinforcement security. With the 24th pick in the first round of the draft, there will not be an establishment quarterback accessible this year when Pittsburgh’s name is called. They could obviously exchange up to catch one of the top possibilities yet then who do they exchange away? Such an exchange would be exorbitant.
Here’s my interpretation of what to do …. make an exchange with Philadelphia for Carson Wentz. On the off chance that the Eagles choose Jalen Hurts is their future, the generally disappointed Wentz who has referenced mentioning an exchange would be an extraordinary fit in Pittsburgh. Wentz had an off-year in 2020 losing his employment yet the examination on him is of high evaluations. He’s large (6’5″, 237) and had a 4,000+ yard passing season in 2019. He’s just been in the NFL since 2016 so he is youthful.
Concerning Roethlisberger, if he returns, he made a significant stride in reverse this season yet his vocation numbers will land him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He entered the NFL through the draft in 2004 and came in with a chip on his shoulder since he was not picked until the eleventh pick generally. 10 groups passed on him including these equivalent Cleveland Browns who took Kellen Winslow all things being equal. The Jacksonville Jaguars who are as yet looking for an establishment quarterback additionally took a pass.
Extraordinarily, the solitary other quarterback from that 2004 draft actually playing this season was Philip Rivers. Simply Big Ben and Rivers stay from 17 quarterbacks chosen that year. The other 15 were:
Eli Manning, San Diego Chargers (by means of exchange with the Giants and the Giants at that point got Manning)
J.P. Losman, Bills
Matt Schaub, Falcons
Luke McCown, Browns
Craig Krentzel, Bears
Andy Hall, Eagles
Josh Harris, Ravens
Jim Sorgi, Colts
Jeff Smoker, Rams
John Navarre, Cardinals
Cody Pickett, 49ers
Casey Bramlet, Bengals
Matt Mauck, Broncos
B.J. Symons, Texans
Bradlee Van Pelt, Broncos
Some different interesting points in the Steelers misfortune and exit from the 2020 major dance:
Ben Roethlisberger tossed 68 passes. 68! That is beyond any reasonable amount to comprehend. You toss that multiple occasions you lose. Straightforward. That and four block attempts. Monstrous.
Enormous Ben finished 47 of those breathes easy season finisher record. What of it. Maybe if Pittsburgh dominates the match something could be said of that however with no running match-up, there is nothing else to do except for toss.
The last time the Browns won a street season finisher game? 1969. More mud despite the Steelers.
The Browns had lost 17 straight games to Pittsburgh when playing in the ‘Burgh. That streak is history.
Ben Roethlisberger has overwhelmed the Cleveland Browns during his profession winning everything except two rounds of the multiple times he has confronted them. He picked the most noticeably awful season of his vocation to lose #3.
In 2002 when the Browns last made it to the postseason as a special case, they lost to the Steelers in a wild one, 36-33.
The last Browns season finisher triumph came over the New England Patriots when Bill Belichick was Cleveland’s lead trainer. Who did they beat? Incidentally, the Patriots. Division round? They lost to Pittsburgh.
The city of Cleveland is appreciating this triumph as they ought to. It resembled they beat their most noticeably awful foe. Since returning the association in 1999, a season that started with a humiliating 43-0 misfortune to the Steelers, Cleveland has had only three winning seasons and has gone through 11 distinctive lead trainers. In crushing Pittsburgh in the special case round, they did it without lead trainer Kevin Stefanski, who with different mentors and players was sidelined as a result of COVID-19. Nobody gave Cleveland a possibility in view of this however eventually, the Browns got the last chuckle and left JuJu Smith-Schuster looking powerful idiotic.
Thinking back to Cleveland’s re-visitation of the NFL in 1999, since that time, the Steelers have beaten the Browns multiple times while losing only multiple times including this current season’s special case misfortune. Separating that further, beside the two misfortunes to the Browns this season, the last time Cleve