Week 12 Game Thread: Cleveland Browns

Posted on November 25, 2012 by ryan

Welcome to 2004, everybody! Seriously, if the Steelers can somehow win this game (can’t believe I just wrote that) Ben should be back next week.

Related posts:

  1. Steelers vs. Browns: Game Thread
  2. Steelers vs. Browns Game Thread
  3. Steelers-Browns Week 17 Chattin’ Thread
  4. Week 6 Game Thread: Tennessee Titans
  5. Week 10 Game Thread: Kansas City Chiefs
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  • calig23

    Well, that’s a start. One play after Allen loses an easy pick in the sun, Timmons grabs a deflected pass and takes it to the house.

  • calig23

    Mendenhall coughs up the football…

  • EasyLikeSundayMorning

    I’ve been thinking some more about how much better the Steelers’ D has played in the last 5 games compared to the first 5.  Overall, the Steelers are 4th in the NFL in points given up despite 3 crapburgers by the D in our first 5 games against DEN, OAK and TEN.

    In games 1-5, the Steelers allowed 115 points for 23 PPG.  In these games, the Steelers’ defense has allowed 101 points and 20.2 PPG (taking out points that are more fairly blamed on turnovers by the O or returns by the ST coverage units).  The D also gave up 10 drives of 10 plays or more, or 2.0 per game.

    In games 6-10, the Steelers allowed 75, 15 PPG.  In these games, the Steelers’ defense has allowed 52 points and 10.4 PPG, as well as 4 drives of 10 plays or more, or 0.8 per game.

    So, in the last 5 games compared to the first 5, the D has given up roughly 50% fewer points and 60% fewer drives of 10 plays more. Not surprisingly, our record reflects this, as we were 2-3 in the first 5 and 4-1 in the last 5.

  • calig23

    And now another fumble- this one by Redman- Browns ball at the 10 yard line.

  • calig23

    Yay, another special teams penalty. Remind me again why they fired the previous ST coach right before the season began?

  • calig23

    And now Dwyer gets into the act with a fumble. This game is over.

  • calig23

    Well, Burress makes an impact by drawing a DPI in the endzone,

    Rainey!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • calig23

    Nice effort by Rainey. Gets stuffed at the line and then bounces out to the side to run it into the endzone.

  • calig23

    The Steelers have no business going into halftime with the lead, but I’m not going to complain about it.

  • LoungeLegal

    Not sure how that happened or why no one can hold onto the ball…but I’ll take it. I think we need to keep Charlie throwing he seemed to get into a decent groove before the half and their D is just keying on the run.

  • LoungeLegal

    #28 gave up on that KO could have helped Rainey springbit

  • LoungeLegal

    Stupid penalties.

  • calig23

    Ike should have intercepted that pass.

  • calig23

    Batch throws a pick at the Steelers’ 30 yard line.

  • calig23

    Richardson goes right up the middle for an easy TD.

  • LoungeLegal

    What is that the 4th Oline penalty?

  • calig23

    Legursky makes his presence known by getting completely burned, Batch gets sacked.

    Also, Mike Adams is hurt. Not sure if that’s a good thing or bad thing…

  • LoungeLegal

    Thanks Beachum.

  • calig23

    Adams’ replacement Beechum promptly commits a holding penalty that wipes out a huge gain.

  • calig23

    I’m predicting a safety.

  • LoungeLegal

    This game is fucked

  • calig23

    Oh hey, another ST penalty. What else is new?

    • calig23

      I take that back. The penalty was on the Browns

  • calig23

    Mendenhall fumbles again, but Will Johnson recovers it. I would be happy to never see Mendenhall play for the Steelers again.

  • LoungeLegal

    Sanders is having a nice game…and he may be the only one!

    • calig23

      Other than a holding penalty, Miller has had a pretty good game, as well.

  • LoungeLegal

    damn.

  • calig23

    And Wallace bobbles a bad pass and it gets picked off

  • LoungeLegal

    Zebras getting lots of milage out of those flags

  • calig23

    This game is basically unwatchable.

  • calig23

    Rainey drops a pass, but it doesn’t matter because the Steelers were flagged for holding anyways.

  • calig23

    And Batch throws pick number 3. With 3 minutes left, that’s probably ballgame.

  • LoungeLegal

    Why the hell are we calling 9 routes???

  • calig23

    Well, I didn’t account for the Browns basically turtling. So, with 2:47 left, the Steelers still have a shot. Of course, Sanders losing 3 yards on the punt return doesn’t help.

  • calig23

    So much for that. Rainey somersaults after a catch, keeps going, then fumbles it and the Browns recover. Rainey still down.

  • LoungeLegal

    Rainey is hurt. Ugly hit. Oh and we lost now…never deserved to win.

  • calig23

    Naturally. The Steelers might have forced a fumble, but the Browns’ guy is ruled down and the Steelers can’t challenge.

    • calig23

      I should add, since it wasn’t ruled a turnover on the field, there’s no automatic review

  • LoungeLegal

    That’s a fumble!??! But no TO so we can’t challenge.

  • calig23

    20 seconds, 97 yards to go, no timeouts. Good luck with that.

  • calig23

    As if 17 yards would have made a difference…

  • LoungeLegal

    Just let this game and my suffering end!!!

  • LoungeLegal

    Appropriate ending. Fumble.

  • David

    This was the worst Steeler effort I’ve seen in 25 years.
    You can’t expect to make the playoffs if you lose to OAK, TEN, and CLE.

    Part of me wants to rest Ben for the season. The other is to try to eke out a playoff spot at 9-7.
    Batch was terrible. Is there any way to see if the CLE ballboy put grease on our footballs?

  • David

    We can only hope for help–a lot of help–starting with the Dolts beating the Raisins.

  • awlcohen

    This loss falls squarely on the shoulders of Tomlin and Colbert. Why are two roster spots wasted on QBs who don’t do anything in practice – i.e. get any reps? Especially given that Ben has missed games nearly every year of his career. The fumbles and drops continue from RM and Mike Wallace – why aren’t they benched for good? Dwyer fumbles once and he is mocked and order to sit out, only to get back in because of injuries.

  • Rob D

    Awesome. Without Ben, we are basically a sub .500 team. I can’t believe they couldn’t run the ball today. Apart from putting the ball on the ground every other down, they weren’t creating running lanes and Cleveland seemed to meet the ball carrier at the handoff. What has happened? They have decent personnel along the line now..I guess the fact that Batch can’t throw the ball anymore might have something to do with it..sEriously, every throw looked like he was trying to get his whole body into it since his arm strength is gone..and you’d think by the flight of the ball that he was throwing against a hurricane level headwind.

    They can’t say you could call holding on every play..Change that could to WILL if Frank Winters is involved..geebus.

    Mendy ….fumbling his way out of the NFL. SAme problem he’s always had with carrying the ball like a loaf of bread. Is it really all that hard to carry it high and tight? REAlly? The other backs caught the virus and were all summarily benched in favour of Rainey who is going to get killed playing RB. That’s not a role he should be asked to do.

    No return game again..but I’m used to that. ST’s are awful this year. The D played well..maybe Tomlin and Haley should retire instead of Dick L…lol..

    It’s going to be very difficult to talk playoffs if they lose at Baltimore. I have very little confidence they will at this point. What a disaster today.

    PS
    It would be great if the 3 founders of this blog appointed someone to keep it going. I enjoy the mostly polite discussions we have here in contrast to the ESPN style character assasinations common to many discussion groups.

    • Cols714

      Yep. I don’t read much into this loss. The defense was great, the offense minus their top two QBs, their top WR, their 4th WR, their starting LG, their starting and 2nd RT, never really had a chance.

      • Rob D

        Should have won against a 2 win team, Cols. The standard is the standard…lol

        The NEW standard seems to mean second place to the Ravens again.

    • Sarah

      Well Rob – didn’t someone post stats here recently as to Mendy actually not fumbling very much throughout his career?…..Just some big ones we all remember, ie the SB….

      I have to say I don’t get Tomlin’s notion to bench anyone who fumbles….it takes away from the rhythm of the offense….you wind up running a guy like Rainey between tackles where he doesn’t belong.

      Anyway – did he bench MW after the fumble last week?

      Maybe he just had more than he could take and flipped out. In the presser Tomlin sounded like he wanted to kill someone. But it was embarrassing to watch the RB rotation as each guy came in, fumbled, went out….til we’d gone through the whole RB corps.

      I don’t think that helped the team at all.

      • Sarah

        Having said that in defense of Mendy, I wonder if his psyche is shot.

        And if we see him in black and gold next season…..

        • Rob D

          Who knows at this point? He’s like a lot of guys this year..he barely played so it’s hard to evaluate them. This is the third straight year of numerous injuries to significant players. You can’t win anything from the tub or training room unfortunately. IF I had a bet to make, I’d put some money on Wallace and Mendenhall leaving the team. We’d have to take two relatively high players in the draft to replace them. I’d rather draft D…but I’d also like my own Lear Jet.

      • Cols714

        Sarah
        I posted that about Mendenhall not fumbling alot in his career is because he hadn’t. The stats were clear and objective. This isn’t a subjective argument. He either fumbled alot or hadn’t. The statistics said…he hadn’t. Up until this year of course where he now has 3 costly fumbles in a very limited amount of work.

        That being said, last week probably ended any chance Mendenhall had of coming back for the Steelers.

  • Cols714

    Dear Steelers Lounge
    Your commenters love this site because it gives them one of the few places in the Internets to have halfway decent conversations about the Steelers without devolving into TOMLIN SUCKS FIRE EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111 type of garbage.

    So if you can, please keep the site going.

    Lots of hugs and kisses (electronic of course)

    • Sarah

      Oh! And let me be first to say – I was all for getting Charlie in there last week and even questioned Tomlin on starting Lefty.

      Batch sure shut my mouth. Yikes.

      And – who under center next week?

      Ben too soon? (Again? )

      Hoyer?

      The Water Boy???

      • Rob D

        I like the Water Boy. He’s intense! Plus there’s the hockey connection which is cool.

  • David

    Here’s the best case scenario, which I wouldn’t bet my ridiculous academic salary on:
    We win our remaining three games at home (SD, CIN, CLE), we lose our two on the road (BAL, DAL), to go 9-7 and eke into the playoffs as the #6 seed.
    What I think will happen? 8-8.
    What would salvage my year? We beat the Cryboys and have at least one win where we don’t sweat. You know, when we use to win by 20+ points. When was our last one?

    • EasyLikeSundayMorning

      If Ben is healthy, we may be favored in every game after this week. Not that we’ll win them all, or any if Ben isn’t healthy.

      • David

        That, my friend, is the $1 million question: Will Ben be healthy THIS year. (Of course, he’ll pull a Byron and say he’s OK).
        Sorry, still PO’ed.

        • Sarah

          Listening to the call in shows one guy was saying, after Ben had to stand on the sidelines and watch THAT, no matter how hurt he still is, he’ll lie and pretend he’s fine just to get on the field and prevent Batch (or the Water Boy) getting out there….
          Which is kinda what happened last year and ruined the season.

  • David

    Off subject, kinda: Boy, SD is the epitome of the Dolts. Couldn’t defend a 4th & 29 swing-pass to Rice? Goodell needs to see if any of the Dolts are betting on their games…

    • Rob D

      That’s the San Diego SUPER Chargers to you, DAvid!
      I think it’s Tom Jackson who calls them that and I never know if he’s being ironic..lol

      • David

        LOL. Doesn’t matter though–the AFCN is long gone.