It was a humiliating experience all around.

The Steelers were flying high after their fifth straight win, an 18-16 bar battle with the Ravens left them at 8-2 and a topic among the talking heads as a team in the mix for a top 2 seed in the AFC. They also knew what awaited them in Cleveland, because when the Steelers boarded their buses for the short drive to the Turnpike on Saturday, among their baggage were three losses during their previous four trips to the shores of Lake Erie.

And while the “on paper” rating showed the Steelers ahead in every category based on the first ten games of this regular season, there was no punchline in the prediction. The Browns still needed help from the Steelers, and it was provided in what ended up being a 24-19 loss on Thursday Night Football.

The Browns got quarterback Jameis Winston after Deshaun Watson was placed on the injured reserve list, and Winston had been in the league long enough to have a reputation.

The first overall pick of the 2015 NFL Draft by Tampa Bay, Winston was a starter for the Buccaneers from Day 1. During his five seasons there, Winston led the NFL in attempts, yards and interceptions, while also throwing at least 19 touchdown passes in each of those seasons. In a word, he was a marksman.

But the thing about snipers is that they end up getting shot. In 101 regular season games, Winston threw 102 interceptions and recorded 207 sacks. Expect probably 400 hits on the quarterback, in addition to those sacks and interceptions.

Winston had developed a pattern. Always a tough guy, but when pressured, Winston would take sacks and make mistakes with the football. In a loss to the Chargers on November 3, he recorded six sacks and threw three interceptions under constant pressure. But the week before, he put up 335 yards and 3 touchdown passes in a win over the Ravens, as they let him off the hook by dropping a pair of interceptions.

The individual matchups that the Steelers needed to win to put the necessary pressure on Winston all seemed to be in their favor. The Browns’ starting left tackle was on IR, and the next guy was ruled out of this game due to a knee injury. Their starting left tackle became Germain Ifedi, a journeyman who had been with five teams since he was Seattle’s No. 1 pick in 2016, and their starting right tackle was Jack Conklin, another former No. 1 pick who had been on and off IR. and PUP 5 times since November 2021.

That the Steelers finished with 1 sack and 6 hits on Winston while passing for 219 yards, including completions of 29, 26, 24, and 18 yards, and 1 touchdown is statistical evidence that their pass rush was not what it needed to be.

The situation was just as grim when the Steelers had the football. Twice they went for it in fourth place and both times they lost distance. Their rushing total of 120 was boosted by a 30-yard dash down the sideline from Justin Fields. And the Browns pass rush sacked Russell Wilson four times and hit him nine times, with Myles Garrett departing for three sacks and a forced fumble in the first half. Garrett won coming off the edge, and one time he started at the edge and looped up the middle before coming in clean for his third sack.

And to some extent, the Steelers had themselves to blame, as the fact that 12 of their 34 rushing attempts ended as no gain or minus-yard put them in the multiple one-dimensional passing situations that bewildered Garrett. Even on completed passes for stretches of distance, Wilson made some shots from a defensive front that seemed to be gaining the upper hand.

In the early stages of the game, the Steelers were involved in a series of events that gave the 2-8 Browns hope and increased their confidence. Their first two offensive possessions ended with a missed field goal and then a turnover on downs as they lost yardage on fourth and second. After the Steelers took a 3–0 lead on a 48-yard field goal, the Browns responded with a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive, then Garrett followed two plays later with his strip sack, making it a 10. Down -3 when Dustin Hopkins capitalized on the turnover with a 34-yard field goal.

At halftime it was 10-3 and the script had been flipped. As James Harrison used to say, “It’s no fun when the rabbit has the gun.” The Browns believed they could win, and as their confidence grew, the Cleveland partisans among the 67,431 responded with full throats. The team they had seen finish 1-4 in the first five at Huntington Bank Field had a hated rival on the ropes.

But these Steelers aren’t going quietly. They arrived in Cleveland having found ways to win on defense or on special teams. They were even 2-0 in games where they couldn’t cross the goal line. So it was completely in their character to rise up and take a 19-18 lead with 6:13 left in the fourth quarter.

The comeback began with a 13-play, 71-yard field goal, including a 35-yard connection to Van Jefferson and a fourth-and-1 conversion pass to Pat Freiermuth. At that moment, with the bowl of the stadium resembling a freshly shaken snow globe, the Steelers could have used a stop from a defense that entered the game ranked No. 2 in the NFL in points allowed. Instead, the Browns answered with a touchdown that capped a 10-play, 65-yard drive and included an 18-yard completion to the backup tight end and a 29-yard completion to the practice squad tight end.

The Steelers stayed in character and proceeded to provide six minutes of the kind of complementary football they hadn’t played all evening. It started with a 7-play, 69-yard drive, including 5 running plays, and was capped by Jaylen Warren’s 3-yard run. The deficit was cut to 18-13 and the defense put on a dynamic play as Nick Herbig blew past Ifedi and sacked Winston, while DeShon Elliott recovered at the Cleveland 27-yard line. Two plays after the takeaway, Wilson spotted Austin in the middle in a snow squall and delivered a perfect pass. The 23-yard touchdown gave the Steelers a 19-18 lead.

With 4:28 left and the Browns staring down a third-and-10 from the Steelers 38-yard line, Bad Jameis showed up. Winston missed WR Elijah Moore badly, and Donte Jackson made the catch for the defense’s second takeaway in just over two and a half minutes.

Now it was time for the 8-2 team, the leading team of the AFC North Division, the team on a five-game winning streak, to put the 2-8 opponent to bed. Win the sixth one-score match of the season. Be what it’s supposed to be.

But every stage contributes to the failure. The offense went three-and-out. Punter Corliss Waitman, who came into the game with a 46.4 average and had punts of 51, 52, 71 and 52 yards against the Ravens the previous Sunday, hit a 15-yard shaft. The defense then had a chance to close out the game, but was unable to rise to the challenge.

Good James came back. He converted a fourth-and-3 with a 5-yard pass to WR Jerry Jeudy, then a third-and-6 with a 15-yard pass to Jeudy. Two runs from Nick Chubb provided the heart of the Steelers defense later, and 19-18 had become a 24-19 deficit with 57 seconds left. Dagger.

The Browns hate the Steelers with the same intensity as the Steelers hate the Ravens, and they had come away with a win that seemed so unlikely just three hours earlier. The Steelers will still sit atop the AFC North and their 8-3 will still be one of the top three records in the conference on Thanksgiving. But this one is going to leave a mark.