The Steelers are 2.5 pt favorites.
The Over/Under is 40.5

This game is somewhat unique, because as 4-Life explained, the Steelers will either be in the playoffs or finish last in the division after Sunday's game.

I think it is important for the Browns because it gives them an opportunity to get Watson more acclimated to game conditions. Winning would give the Browns a sweep over their biggest rival and they would finish w/a 4-2 record in the AFC North. Obviously, the game is more important for the Steelers because they can make the playoffs. I don't know the particulars, but they have to win.

I like the way we match-up w/them, but we know the history of this series. I'm hoping for a win this week to finish the year strong. I also just enjoy the game of football and don't get caught up in the records as some other folks might. It's also for bragging rights in our family. My daughter and I are huge Browns fans and my wife and son are huge fans of the Steelers.

The Steelers have been squeaking by with 4th quarter come from behind wins.

Hopefully the Browns can continue the good fourth quarter play they showed last week against Washington

The Browns need to come out strong take a lead and keep it till the game ends.

I have faith that the Browns will end the Steelers play-off chance

As far as my family all

Browns fans !!

Going into the offseason, I didn't think we would be playing for bragging rights and to stay out of the basement in our last game this season. Regardless of the outcome this week, the season itself was a huge disappointment. I get this year was wrote off to make changes, so next year and several after that could be better. Knowing that did not help me watch the season with any more joy.

For the Steelers I pretty much wrote off this year considering that they started this season at 2-6. Trubisky looked awful, Pickett wasn't doing much either with all of his interceptions. O-line looked awful too. But somehow they have gotten to 8-8, which I didn't think was remotely possible. I've been pleasantly surprised. It would be even nicer if they finished 9-8 and somehow made the playoffs. Should be an interesting close game.

This isn't Washington's pass defense the browns are going up against. I fully expect to see watson turn the ball over 2 to 3 times. Steelers defense is a different animal with watt back. They are 1-6 without him. 7-2 with him

Browns-13
Steelers -27

Just wondering what your expectations were for the Browns season? Almost every publication predicted the Browns would go 6 and 11 or 7 and 10. Not sure what is so surprising.

It's still Steeler week. Putting an end to any playoff hopes they might still have would be a joy.

I would really enjoy it if the Jets won, the Bills won … and we won

Weren't you the one who made it known that the Browns had a top 10 offense with Brissett at QB? With the way the defense played in 2021 and a top 10 offense, what should Browns fans have expected? Surely you're not trying to suggest a 4-7 record while Brissett was the QB, right? If what was a fine defense in 2021 hadn't flopped like a beached whale, things would be very different right now. Is that what you think people should have expected?

Before the season? No.

Did I report factual information during the season? Yes.

However, that has no bearings on pre-season predictions/expectations. It's just yet another example of you starting a fight.

Well of course it is. lol You do understand that expectations change as facts unfold, right? I guess you're trying to say that people's expectations shouldn't have changed when the O started firing on all cylinders? I'll ask again in an attempt to get a straight answer which I don't actually expect.

With a top 10 offense and the way the defense played in 2021, what should Browns fans have expected.

Never mind. I know when someone poses a question that you don't like it's their fault for asking it somehow in your world.

See, I told you. You avoided the question like the plague. That's how you address losing. You've become all too predictable.

I answered it. You just didn't like the answer so you moved the goal posts. What's new?

You seem to try and act as though what someone's opinion is at the start of the season has some importance as to how facts can change that over the course of the season and that the only thing that matters is what they thought at the beginning of the season. That is patently false. Still avoiding it like the plague.

A non answer and blaming someone else for bringing up the question isn't an answer.

The more you talk.......the more you remove doubt.

You have already removed all doubt. Actual discussion about things you disagree with is a foreign concept to you. And somehow it's everyone elses fault they brought it up.

Has nothing to do w/disagreement. They were two completely different topics. You didn't like my answer about preseason predictions and expectations, so once again, you moved the goalposts.

It's the exact same topic put into a timeline. You somehow think what someone thinks preseason is an accurate depiction of what someone expects after watching teams play the game week in and week out. Nobody actually expected this offense to be as good as it was before the season. But it was good. Are you saying that shouldn't change someone's expectations? Somehow you try to present this as the only thing that matters is what you thought before and after the season. That's simply not true and you seem to manage to be able to focus on addressing me while still avoiding at address this.

A regular season is 18 weeks long. Things change over that period of time. Teams people thought would be bad turn out to be better than they thought they would be. Teams people thought would be great turn out to be not so great. So what someone thought preseason actually has no bearing on what unfolds as a season progresses. And what unfolds as the season progresses has everything to do with expectations moving forward.

And that's exactly why people are disappointed. It's not a hard concept to grasp. You didn't seem to have a problem understanding how well the offense was doing with Brissett at QB. But now somehow you have a problem with people taking that into account and pointing out how a reasonable person would change their preseason expectations based on that.

A problem? I asked a legitimate question. There were no accusations. No insults. No sense of malice.

Nobody expected the offense to be this good with Brissett at QB. That's the answer to your question and why before the season began expectations were lower. Which has nothing to do with anything that transpired that changed those expectations as should have been expected with the Browns having a potent offense.

Where did I accuse you of insults, accusations or malice? You just keep making things up and still dodging.

Here, perhaps this will help you understand what "expectations" are:

ex·pec·ta·tion
/ˌekˌspekˈtāSH(ə)n/

noun
plural noun: expectations

a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future.
"reality had not lived up to expectations"



a belief that someone will or should achieve something.
"students had high expectations for their future"

You said I had a "problem" w/what he said. I didn't have a "problem" at all.

Get your last word in, Larry. Once again, instead of talking football, we are left feeding your delicate ego.

And those expectations change based on the circumstances. Early in the season fans saw how well the O was performing. That changed the expectations for the rest of the season. You know, the future.

I have never seen someone work so hard to avoid answering a valid question.

You're the one avoiding answering a football question here. Of course you are blaming someone else for it.

j/c

I want the Browns to win.

I now return you to the vers/pit thread.

A preview from a neutral party.

Agreed, D4L. Damn the draft! We aren't tanking because we have no reward for a lousy finish, no draft picks for the top. We do need to sweep the Rusties into the basement. Hope we have some offense to spare and pound them all day long. Any win any day any way over these guys is a good day's work. Unleash an Elf one more time! Go, Browns!

The most important thing for this game is Watson playing well against a good defense.

It would be nice if the team doesn't roll over either.

I expected Good Baker to show up and for him and Ski to get us to the playoffs and maybe the SB.

It's Jan 6th 2023 and it's 6:44 am. Guess what?


PITTSBURGH STILL SUCKS.

X2

Like death and taxes ... there is at least one other thing you can count on.

2 and 1/2... Clowney will be missing.

LOL........true.

I am not sure if they officially ruled him out on Sunday. They probably will if they haven't already.

What the heck? I think I'm going to throw up!

NO, NO, NO...the Browns offensive coaching staff is now facing Ground Hog Day...TJ WATT vs RT JAMES HUDSON...

We can only hope that the Browns offensive coaching staff have figured out how to make adjustments to stop Watt from repeating his 4 sack day against the Browns RT Hudson again.

Hudson needs to grow up and meet the challenge..!!

The best statement to come out of that video "Chubb - 5.0 Yards Per Carry, 1,488 yards, 12 TDs, such a waste". I could not agree more. Another wasted year in his prime and not making the playoffs.

Having a qb who can make better pre-snap reads should help a lot w/that. Watt is a great player and will be a huge factor, but I doubt Watson is as dumb as the last guy when it comes to seeing where the pressure is coming from.

Six straight games holding opponents to 17 or less. Steelers haven't allowed more than 190yds passing in any of those games.

Offense faces a tough battle this Sunday.

Well it's a good opportunity to see what KS and the O can dial up against a legit D. It should be interesting, even if it isn't conclusive as an indication for next year

I get sick to my stomach thinking about the wasted years of Chubb and Garrett.

Heard a really great comment by Daryl Reiter today on the radio...I'm paraphrasing..."the Browns don't have a talent problem, they have a soft skills problem...they lack the leadership at all levels of the organization to put the talent together and be successful...they are basically a dysfunctional mess."

I have not heard anyone complain about talent on this team in 4 years. The media constantly praises the talent level on the team. Several guys in the top 100. And 3 out of the last 4 seasons have been losing seasons. Not just missing the playoffs but below .500.

That is simply gross.

And we have people pining to stick with this clown show.

You don't think Harbaugh would run to Cleveland to coach this team? It's ok though, we got Depo and Kev...who needs the 'super successful at every level' Harbaugh.

What a joke.

I'm not getting on you, but you may want to rethink that line. There are threads dedicated to our OL and how they were going to get a certain someone killed. Meanwhile, they were ranked 1st overall one year and 8th the next. I've read repeatedly how our WRs were the worst in the league. I read that our TEs suck. I've read that a certain someone had a terrible supporting cast. I could go on, but I think you'll get the point.

Or the guy making hateful comments about the last guy. The hate is real.

It was more of a general statement. Anyone with half a brain knows the team has been talented for multiple years (and that OBJ was not running the wrong routes).

What will Pittsburgh Steelers game reveal about Browns, Deshaun Watson? – Terry Pluto’s Pregame Scribbles
Published: Jan. 08, 2023, 5:09 a.m.


PITTSBURGH – Scribbles in my notebook as the Browns end their season in Pittsburgh:

1. This is a huge game for the Steelers who enter Sunday with an 8-8 record and a chance to make the playoffs. The Browns are 7-9 and have been out of the playoff race for two weeks. The Steelers are at home. Will the Browns simply be thinking about getting through the day without getting hurt – and then going home?

2. How will the Browns react after Jadeveon Clowney’s venting to cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot about the coaching, favoritism toward Myles Garrett and how he is being mistreated. The Browns sent Clowney home from the practice facility. Soon to be a free agent, Clowney will not play Sunday. But how will those on the field perform? Sometimes, a controversy like this can bring a team together. Or else, it could be a sign of more “internal discord,” to quote a Browns phrase from 2018 when coach Hue Jackson and offensive coordinator Todd Haley were fired at midseason.

3. The Browns have been hyping the game as a chance to kill the Steelers’ playoff dreams. It also would end coach Mike Tomlin’s streak of 15 consecutive seasons without a losing record. Is that enough to motivate the Browns? They have been such a strange team in 2022, I doubt anyone can answer that question.

4. Then there’s Deshaun Watson. This is his first clash with Pittsburgh while wearing an orange helmet. In his first five Cleveland games, he’s had one excellent half. That was the final two quarters of last week’s 24-10 victory over Washington. He threw three TD passes after the intermission.

5. Since coming off his 11-game suspension, Watson has been very inconsistent. He was sacked four times in the first half vs. Washington, when he was 3 of 8 for 28 yards. I was told two of the sacks were a problem with protection. The two others were on Watson, holding the ball too long. A few times, receivers failed to run precise routes.

6. In the second half, Watson didn’t scramble quite as much and was more confident where he wanted to throw the ball. He hit Amari Cooper twice for TD passes.

7. Tomlin on Watson: “Stepping into a stadium with Deshaun Watson has our attention ... We also have to do a better job with Cooper. He’s a featured, central guy. With each exposure (Watson and Cooper playing more together), it’s reasonable to expect it to be better – so that’s an agenda for us.”

8. Tomlin also said the Browns had five third-and-1 situations when Cleveland beat Pittsburgh 29-17 on Sept. 22. He talked about the Browns running game setting up those short yardage, third-down situations. He said the Browns won “the attrition,” meaning they wore down the Pittsburgh defense with Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt rushing for 160 yards in 35 carries. QB Jacoby Brissett was 21 of 31 for 220 yards and a pair of TDs.

9. This is Watson’s sixth and final game of the season. All the talk of “rust” from not playing for 700 days is now irrelevant. Nor should weather be a problem. Sunday’s high temperature in Pittsburgh is supposed to be 43. But not a lot of wind or snow. It’s January. It’s the AFC North. Watson will play in a lot of games like this for the Browns, so he must learn how to deal with it.

10. The last time these two teams met, Mentor product Mitch Trubisky started at QB for Pittsburgh. Now, rookie Kenny Pickett has the job. He has been the starter during Pittsburgh’s 6-2 record since the bye week. He has led game-winning drives in the last two Pittsburgh contests, victories over Baltimore (16-13) and Las Vegas (13-10).

11. Pickett has very modest stats: Six TDs vs. nine interceptions, completing 64% of his passes. He’s mobile, rushing for 236 yards (4.5 average). He has a 6-5 record as starter. Pittsburgh won’t put up big numbers on offense. They’ll run the ball a lot at the Browns, play good defense and try to win a close, low-scoring game.

12. My Prediction: The Browns are 1-19 vs. the Steelers in the regular season since Pittsburgh moved to Acrisure Stadium, which used to be called Heinz Field. The one playoff game here between the two teams was won by the Browns in 2020. But this is the regular season and Pittsburgh wins, 19-17.


https://www.cleveland.com/browns/20...tson-terry-plutos-pregame-scribbles.html

Well, other than that other playoff game that the Browns lost. Do better, Terry.

#8 !!!

Maybe Ford will step up in place of Hunt next season. I'd prefer D'Ernest, but I doubt that happens.