FINALLY...supposed HC stand in was to work the game how he felt not how Stefanski would do it. And there we were with that big lead and we went into that GUT WRENCHING prevent O and D. We have done what seems to have been 4-5 times this season and as gut wrenching it has been we have come out winners in each case. But for once I wish us to put the pedal to the medal. KC's O we cannot let them come back that is for sure. But that is for a future date.

Baker is an amazing QB I hope this has squelched all the Ahhh I'm not sure if Baker is a keeper BS. The kid has thrown just ONE INT since the 2nd half of the season (if we can believe the announcers that is but I think it is so) just ONE INT for the last 8 games and 1 playoff game.

At least 3 drops 2 by Higgins (what was up with him - he was about the only one who didn't come to play) and 1 by Hooper maybe two and one of those in the endzone.

Landry was his usual amazing WR man I love that guy! catching a slant and turning the jets on, yes the man has speed and taking it to the house for a TD.

Chubb oh my Goodness what a RB and his stoic expression never changed. Running against a stacked deck his vision is amazing and the kid can CATCH as he made a late game answer to a Steeler TD with a well designed and executed screen pass and he made a 40 TD scamper look like a simple 15 yarder the kid just can fly with those sprinter massive legs!

Hunt..the mad man - he runs with ANGER and that first TD run I don't know how he just kept the pile going forward and it was not one of those assist by some 300 lbers it was all Hunt and determination to get into the endzone. And that 2nd TD I'm like NO WAY!!! as he saw a sliver of day light around the short side of the field and just bursted into the endzone.

OL...so so proud of them and especially our new guy Michael Dunn who answered the bell. Wills btw is a freaking Beast. I feel so bad for Conklin cause he was having maybe his best game of the season before his Hammy came up worse for wear. Lamm did all right getting a jump on the great TJ. So all we heard over and over was how great the Steeler did was and how they were the best SACK team in the NFL. And yet our rag tag OL with a quick twitch battling QB who the few times he looked to be swallowed up by the rush he got out of it.

Baker was accurate and made quick decisions - all the list of negatives posters had come up with and I tried telling them that the kid has seen 4 playbooks in 3 seasons and give him time to get comfortable with the new system. No they were not excuses. WE GOT OUR FRANCHISE QB!!! and a possible dynasty if we build up that Defense.

Defense talking about being proud of these kids. I hope the kid Stewart earned himself a place here for a long time boy does he deserve it. Is my memory correct the kid has 3 INTs since getting playing time at the end of the season including one last night. He also made some amazing pass defenses knocking the ball away and not to stop there but some sure tackling. Jackson played...well thats all I can say for this CB is he played the game and he cannot help it that he doesn't have much talent but we were down 2 top CBs of ours.

I cannot be more pleased by the play of our Safeties. All game they came up with solid plays and WHAT A WAY TO START OFF A GAME!!!

I couldn't believe it when I saw that ALL PRO Center we have been told about over and over by the STEELER FANS who have jobs with the Football programs. Said like 10 feet high in the air well over the head of Big Ben who then just looked at the ball as it lay at his feet instead of jumping on it. Garrett diving for the ball and knocking it away and Joseph who I have come to love his play and effort of these last few games ended up jumping on the ball with the most amazing start of a game possible!

Garrett finally showed signs of coming back from the Covid and really played and led our Defense. It was funny the last quarter he would be lined up on one side (vacated by Vernon) and then 3 other guys would be line up on the other side of the Center and he would have 2-3 guys blocking him leaving one on one for the other guys.

Sheldon Richardson playing injured but played on pure guts and had a quiet good game. I even saw both Richardson and Garrett dropping into coverage. Garrett if doubled teamed would instead just wait and jump at the Big Ben Throws and definitely caused Big Ben to throw the ball high a couple of times one of which ending in an INT.

Props to Gustin who made a very good INT for the No Names on the Defense.

The LBS did their jobs nobody played great well with a possible exception of Goodson as he actually had an amazing game. But props to our Coaches - I think we got this virtual practice thing down compared with the rest of the league. We definitely had a GAME Plan and it was executed with determination by all.

Funniest quote. "Oh our replacement LG after Dunn went down well I had to introduce myself to whoever this guy was before the game in the locker room" - Baker Mayfield.

No bums out there today.

Of course the announcers still spewing their meaning less stats about the Steelers being great.

Collinworth that bum... He was telling us about how great the Steeler Defense is and then in almost the same breath tell us how bad they were. Of course it was all about the Steelers not us being a great TEAM!

Got to love these guys! OH MAN, A PLAYOFF WIN and against our arch rivals in THEIR HOUSE! with their FAKE FANS making noise but not there. The should ban the fake noise crapola.

Well what did you all see. Btw, heads up don't drink a beer when you are taking Oxi for pain....my son had to keep saying to me - Dad you awake! as the commercials were putting me to sleep...lol

I will come back to this thread when I have had time to really think.

For right now:

The Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers two games in a row. First win was to get to the playoffs.

The second win was to send the Steelers home.

That has to sink in for awhile.

I may have to put on every single piece of Browns gear I own and just walk around and let the public know.

Good post, EO!

I just might have to watch the game again before I go into work late this afternoon, time permitting.

We don't suck anymore, thank God. We got us a good team now!

We'll pick up the 5th year option for sure - but can we start long term deal negotiations with him yet or do we have to wait until next year? It'll be interesting to see what unfolds with his next deal. He's not elite (yet), so does he get an elite deal? Do we pay him like a top 10 QB (>29.5m/year)? Statistically, he was I think #15 in QBR (just one way to gauge a QB), but he played better than that IMHO, especially the last half of the season. Will be interesting to watch over the next 2 years.



Regarding safeties - I don't recall cursing Sendejo at all during the game, which I think is a first . I wouldn't play that style defense often and it was frustrating as heck, but even the talking heads earlier in the week said this is what was needed. Kudos to Joe Woods and the team for doing what was needed down 3-4 starting DBs and a starting DE.


Regarding Collingsworth - I think he was making a point - they were the best defense from a pressure perspective and they were being held in check by our patchwork OL. That's the way I took it. This being said, the stats they kept showing were certainly more Steelers friendly - but the fact is we've sucked for 20+ years and the Steelers have not. We've earned those stats, but why keep rubbing it in our faces?

Team came to play. I haven't seen a Browns team take it to another team physically (especially the Steelers) like that in a long time.

Mayfield has turned a corner and has done everything anybody could ask of him to put himself in the "franchise QB" group.

Chubb and Hunt were both awesome. I've always known Chubb could be effective in the passing game, he just doesn't get many chances.

Van Pelt called a very good game. I didn't agree with every call but overall.. great game.

Very happy with the way the OL held up as players went down. Just a reminder, Michael Dunn is a Terp.

Defense was damn opportunistic, none of the first three INTs were easy, all great catches. The 4th one, I just don't think Big Ben thought Takitaki had the hops to get up the high. The bend but don't break was the perfect scheme, make them go all the way down the field. I suspect we will see something very similar next week. Hearing the broadcasters talk about how Woods knew this game was going to be frustrating because we had to give them all of the underneath stuff was interesting.

I actually enjoyed Collinsworth. Dude understands the Browns. When it was 28-0 or 35-7 or whenever he said it.. but when he said, "Trust me none of the Browns fans are comfortable yet." I was like, heck no we aren't comfortable, we've seen this before. I also understand the announcers talking about the Steelers coming back the whole game. Part of their job in a game like that is keeping casual fans interested so you always have to talk up how the other team can get back in the game.. no problem with that at all.

Quick shout out to Parkey who was perfect on the night.

Quick shout out to D'Ernest Johnson who got us out beyond the 35 a few times on kick off returns, did a real nice job.

Quick shout out to whoever the assistant to the assistant OL coach was on the sidelines who looked like he was about 19 years old. I'm sure he's telling the other kids at school today about the game.

Very curious about Stafanski, who is so composed on the sidelines, was he sitting in a chair in his basement like that or was he jumping around screaming like the rest of us?

Get healthy team, we have to do it all over again and I believe we are going to need every bit of that 48 points again.

A complete game. Coaching and execution.

Calmness. Next man up attitude when players got hurt.

Physicality - but in control with minimum penalties.

So many players to mention as clutch. Baker, Chubb, Hunt, Landry, every OL man, DL, LBers, even the dang safeties - even Sandejo had himself a pick!

Special mention to Kevin Stefanski ... so good at his job, that he lead and coached the team AND the coaches to a level of competence that they didn't miss a beat without him. I've seen media comments about "did we miss him" as if his contribution is surplus to requirements ... the truth is the opposite - dude is SO good, so collaborative, instilled such a good culture .... that we won despite all the challenges. mad props.

When Redwine had that interception...did anyone else notice Karl Joseph?...well he blew up Pouncey at the end lol

Agreed with all the posts on this subject. No reason for me to repeat any of it. I will add that I believe we are now a dangerous team. We have talent but are playing beyond that right now with confidence I've never seen before. Any weaknesses we do have aren't showing. I hope we can get all the players back that are possible for the KC game. I will add I think the coaches now have faith in this team.

You know I keep saying I don't think we can win. I've been saying it for the last 6 games and we won most of them. Maybe I should keep it up!!!

I do have to admit that I think that the stands being almost empty was perfect for a young team missing so many parts. It definitely made communication easier.

Game balls to:

Baker, OL, Juice, Chubb, and Hunt.

DL, Taki, Goodson, Smith, Stewart, Redwine, and Joseph.

Johnson, Parkey, and whole special teams unit.

Preifer, AVP, and all the assistant Coaches.

Complementary football at its finest.

Stefanski said his feed was about 30 seconds behind his family’s ... so he had to listen to them celebrate/get angry all night before he watched LOL

Forgot to mention, we brought an end to the Steelers 70+ consecutive game with a sack record last night.

A guy named Blake for Mayor !

I think I saw a couple reasons why we pretty much neutralized their D, but I still can't wrap my head around how their most potent unit pretty much did nothing all game.

Baker did an excellent job of getting the ball out. Patchwork Oline did an incredible job, considering what they were dealing with. In general, team all but eliminated any dumb mistakes (I think we shot ourselves in the foot and killed a drive once?). RBs did their usual thing and then made a couple plays.

Other than the turnovers (which were huge) there was nothing remarkable in what we did, it just worked.

Did you notice with AVP calling the plays there was no trickery? Not double reverses, no pass backs, no flea flickers, nothing fancy with the guys in motion.. just run the ball and throw the ball.

I'm thinking of buying a 'Hance' jersey. I've never had a Browns jersey, but this might be a fun one to get.... or, if I can find a place to do the custom lettering, one that says "a guy named Blake" (he's #62, by the way)

kind of like you in gameday feed and the rest of us.. somehow you're like 2 plays ahead every game..lol

Same with me and my family because I have rabbit ears and get it "live" whereas they all have cable or satellite and are on delay. It's fun

I’m not sure how my feed is so far ahead? And my parents is even MORE ahead than mine too

I use Hulu with Live TV. So my feed is most likely delayed to Hulu, then it has to stream to my TV. I know I'm 40 - 60 seconds behind my brother. He will text me and I have to wait for the play to happen to see if it is a Happy Text or Angry text........

I saw our Franchise QB pick apart the Steeler secondary with quick and accurate passes.

I saw our 2 Franchise running backs forcing their will on Steeler defenders.

I saw Jarvis Landry go into MONSTER MODE.

I saw a 20 year culture change take place.

I saw a rag tag defense make BIG plays and CAUSE turnovers.

I saw JuJu and Big Ben crying like babies at the end of the game.

I saw the Greatest Win in the History of the Expansion Browns happen magnificently against the HATED Steelers.

I think if we can get a few starters back we can run the table!

Go Browns!!

Higgy had 2 big catches, and I'd only say 1 drop, the one on the sideline was overthrown.

Granted I'm a huge Higgy fan so maybe I'm biased. Even the best have a drop here or there. I'm much more troubled by Hooper's dropsies.

Other than that one thing you pretty much summed everything up EO, great write up!

Great post, eo!

I’m glad we both stuck around long enough to experience this game, after years of misery.

We got up so big, so early, that I wasn’t nervous that much. It was a relaxing game. Didn’t get goosebumps, woke up this morning, remembered we won but didn’t get goosebumps. I was like, “on to Kansas City”.

Went to work wearing my new Baker t-shirt , and this 26-year-old girl I’ve been working alongside for three weeks - she knows nothing about football, but I’ve been wearing the browns colours the last few weeks and we’ve chatted - asked me how the game went, and I said it went awesome, and then I got goosebumps and got a burst of energy. Almost started to bawl, to be honest.

Told her we hadn’t won a playoff game since 1995, and that Steelers are our bitter enemy. Her eyes widened and she said, “I was in diapers in 1995.“

I’m so proud of this team.

Oh, sorry.
What I saw? I saw us beat the Steelers in their house in January, against unlikely odds.

I saw Baker reset the Browns narrative

Last playoff game I purchased a custom jersey #86 but I put Dropcutt for the name - thought it would be funny ... no biggie, we’ll be back

Wow time flies

I saw refs pretty much stay out of a Browns game for once

We can beat KC. First we beat our bitter rival, then we have to play the defending champs. Tough, but possible.

With our offence and our mentality, we’ve got a puncher’s chance.

amazing what can happen when they do that, eh?

Believe we can sign Baker this offseason. I would do it sooner than later. He won the first playoff game in 25+ years. He deserves to be paid handsomely.

I originally thought maybe mid season next year, but no. And we won't even get to his 5th year option. I can see almost 100% Re-sign him this year. For how much remains to be seen, however. If we keep winning games that number goes up.

I noticed that as well, about halfway into 3rd quarter. We didn't;t get a lot of help with holding, but we didn't hand it to Ben with a biased eye. I was OK with the officiating.

j/c...

When I read my post I was like...of man I was trying to type as fast as I was thinking cause some came out like I was posting in code. Thanks to our dawgs they can read eotabanese...lol

Lamppdog...I saw a fan be dang proud of his team

Michael Dunn I loved his finish on some blocks between him and Teller we were like an IHOP out there.

Wonder what OBJ was thinking. A young lady who my wife and I stood up for at their Church and Justice of the peace wedding.
She is a big time Giant fan and hates OBJ she stated Congrats to the Browns and their fans well everyone "BUT" OBJ.

I just was in "come to think of it" mode. Where has he been - I know he's rehabbing his surgery but I thought he would be celebrating more and be a little supportive of the team. Its as if he's not part of the team.

Higgins: not talking about stats just the "FEELING" I got as he didn't seem to be his normal self over achieving. And I remember looking into his eyes and saw somebody almost afraid out there.

Oh speaking about stats...we are the perfect Stats is for losers. One would look at stats and think Big Ben had a great game. One would look at stats and think that OUR DEFENSE was terrible but just as we did in our game vs. the Titans. We came out hot and fast playing defense - pretty sure we held Henry to minimal gains. The we went into that same prevent O and D...O meaning they had 8-9 in the box and we would run run and then with 3rd and long (over 5 yards) Pass - No play action as all was very predictable. Run Run Pass

Defense with that Umbrella leaving open WRs underneath and QBs would just eat up yards and put up scoring drives.

So that fear of failure simply was not with me under our New Coaching staff. As each time we had that big early lead yes, it was nail biting but it always came up with us winning.

Speaking of stats...stats for winners that is...lol

Josh Allen and Baker were the top rated playoff QBs

Appears that we will get everyone back this next game. Hope that doesn't give us Satisfaction and we still have that fire and chip on our shoulders!

I think Conklin will be a tough one...he will probably start but won't last more than a series or two.

Just thinking out loud but does Hooper always go to the ground to catch passes from Baker? It like he has no YAC. Harrison did even touch a ball this game. Wish we would see more Njoku out there. He could become a difference maker.

Thanks for the What I saw out there. Its fun coming to the board and reading posts.

I remember seeing something out there about OBJ celebrating via Facebook or Twitter or something. Sounds like he's doing his thing... I don't mind. He's a hard worker and he's got plenty on his plate to be ready for next season. Also, it's usually that when you're hearing from him a lot things aren't going well, so no news is probably good news.

I think that this is all a little bittersweet for OBJ... happy we're there, bummed that he doesn't get to be part of it this year.


I wanted Conklin to go back in the game because I was nervous, but thankfully the coaches had enough sense to hold him out in case of emergency only. No point in putting him back in if we're getting by without him; so, he got to start the healing process early without further injuring it. Hopefully, that translates to him being able to play an entire game Sunday at a level higher than Lamm.


Having Bitonio back will be good, too.

It's so wrong that I didn't really worry that much after they ran up that first quarter score. I knew they'd rope a dope the second half and try to burn the clock. That's Browns football these days.

The O line? No drama, no panic, just keep plugging in bodies. Mayfield made it fairly easy on them by getting the ball out fast.

Our running game? It was remarkable considering it was the Steelers they were playing.

It's kind of odd. I'm used to having to make excuses for why I stick around for the abuse. Now I'm watching post-season play. The AFC North is no joke. Three teams in the playoffs.

I don't know that the Browns are a Super Bowl team this year. But they sure did make my year with that back to back wins over the Steelers thing.

I kind of feel for OBJ also. Not his biggest fan but I don't believe he is the cancer some do. It must be frustrating to want out of a bad situation in NY and when it finally swings positive here, he can't participate.

OBJ did make a few supportive tweets during the game.

I saw us not only win a playoff game, but do it against our nemesis in their house. Plus beat them two weeks in a row.

I saw our OL depth just improve massively. Dunn can be a viable back up. You add in Lamm, who did a decent job, plus Harris at back up center. Young players that can be groomed to take over. I love it.

I saw Baker come of age. He was leading this team.

Jarvis is the heart and soul of this team.

I saw a defensive coordinator with a plan that worked. It wasn't pretty, but was effective. Goodson, Smith and the rookie LB, played well. The defense in general played tough and smart.

I saw a team that I almost wrote off again, become the team I hoped for.

A call for Tomlin's head...so to speak

I lost all respect for Tomlin when he tried to trip the runner on a kick off return down the sidelines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbf_NtYoE1c

Most coaches when they come to a team they put their program in. I was shocked when Tomlin who was a defensive coach and disciple of Dungy didn't have a say in the O or the D when he became HC. That was unheard of. They played the 3-4 even though he was a cover 2 guy. so I saw a guy who had no say in the O no say in the D and no say in special teams. So I saw a glorified Cheerleader who I thought was over rated of course I always thought it was my bias against the Steelers that made me think that way but still would like to know just what has he done there???

I saw Tomlin unleash hell in the moth of January.

ok not sure where I saw this... maybe this board?
Did you hear the steelers are sitting their starters this weekend?

I’ve always thought Tomlin was over rated. He’s been riding Ben’s coat tails his entire head coaching career. I honestly think a better coach would have gotten another championship with a QB the caliber of Ben. It’ll be interesting to see what transpires when he’s gone.

Cowher was overrated too. With the talent he had he should have won more Super Bowls or at least gotten in more. What did he lose 3 or 4 AFC championship games? Lost 4 and one Super Bowl