Category: 2022 Week 18 Steelers vs. Browns

Steelers CB Levi Wallace taking interception ball to Damar Hamlin

Levi Wallace has plans for his interception ball from Sunday’s game.

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Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Levi Wallace was one of two Steelers who intercepted Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson on Sunday. His interception late in the first half set the Steelers up with great field position and helped shift momentum to Pittsburgh as the Steelers beat the Browns 28-14.

On Monday, the day after the win, Wallace was still carrying the football around and that is for a very special reason. Wallace, who previously played for the Buffalo Bills, said that the ball is headed to the Bills facilities as a gift to former teammate Damar Hamlin. Hamlin suffered a horrific injury just a week ago on the field and suffered a cardiac arrest on the field.

Hamlin was dismissed from the hospital in Cincinnati and will continue his recovery in Buffalo. Wallace joined the Steelers in the offseason and enjoyed a very strong season. He appeared in 15 games with nine starts. He finished the year with 48 tackles, 13 passes defended and four interceptions.

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5 highest-graded Steelers from the Week 18 win over the Browns

Here are the top Steelers from last week according to PFF.

Aside from a lapse for part of the second quarter, the Pittsburgh Steelers put out a rock-solid performance on Sunday to beat the Cleveland Browns 28-14. Pro Football Focus has their grades out and here are the five highest-grades Steelers from last week.

Steelers mixed about missing playoffs but keeping Mike Tomlin’s streak alive

Some players took solace in keeping the streak alive and others not so much

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Despite the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-14 win over the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburg was unable to make the playoffs thanks to a loss by the New York Jets. However, a second storyline is all this is by winning, the Steelers improved their record to 9-8 and assured the streak of non-losing seasons by head coach Mike Tomlin continues.

Several players were asked about the streak after the game and there were clearly mixed feelings on it. For example, defensive tackle Cam Heyward said he didn’t want to talk about streaks right now and it was clear he was dejected by the fact Pittsburgh didn’t do enough in the season to make the playoffs and was even relying on other teams for a chance.

Meanwhile, on the other side of it, we have running back Najee Harris. He said that keeping coach Tomlin’s streak alive meant everything. He did acknowledge disappointment in missing the playoffs but did seem happy for the consolation prize of the streak.

In the big picture, missing the playoffs should be all that matters to the Steelers. I have a hard time imagining Tomlin takes any comfort in how the season ended by clinging to the fact his teams have finished .500 or better every season he has been the head coach.

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Steelers LB Alex Highsmith uses questionable sack celebration

The internet went nuts over Alex Highsmith’s sack celebration.

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Ok, first and foremost, I honestly have no opinion about the nature of this sack celebration. But once the replays of Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Alex Highsmith simulating getting CPR started circulating the internet, lots of big opinions started popping up.

As you can see from the video, Highsmith gets a sack of Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson and before getting up, a teammate comes over and gives him several chest compressions. Given the circumstances with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin having a cardiac arrest on the field last week and being saved by CPR on the field, there are a couple of ways to look at this.

You could view this as a way to honor what happened with Hamlin or you could view it as distasteful and mocking what happened. Given the character of Highsmith, there’s no way I believe it was the latter. And in fairness, I cannot tell who the player is who gives the compressions.

But I want to open it up to everyone. Let us know in the comments below how you feel about the sack celebration. A big deal or not?

Steelers WR George Pickens on winning the game and missing the playoffs: ‘It’s like a birthday party without the cake’

George Pickens articulates the mixed emotions of Sunday perfectly.

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One of the best stories of the 2022 season has been the remarkable impact rookie wide receiver George Pickens has had on the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pickens propensity for highlight-reel-worthy catches is newsworthy and his future with quarterback Kenny Pickett looks bright.

After the Steelers 28-14 win over the Cleveland Browns, Pickens gave about as appropriate a comparison as possible given Pittsburgh missed the playoffs. ‘It’s like a birthday party without the cake,” Pickens said.

Pickens finished the season strong with three receptions for 72 yards including a beautiful 31-yard touchdown catch. Pickens finished the season with 52 receptions for 801 yards and four receiving touchdowns.  Pickens 15.4 yards per catch is the best on the team and really gives hope that the Steelers finally have that deep threat this offense has been lacking.

Pittsburgh finished the season at 9-8 but because of a slow start to the season, missed the cut for the playoffs. The win over the Browns did assure head coach Mike Tomlin of his 16th consecutive non-losing season.

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Steelers have no one to blame but themselves for missing the playoffs

No playoffs for Pittsburgh thanks to some bad losses in the first half of the season.

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Right now the Pittsburgh Steelers and all of their fans are living with mixed emotions. Riding the high of a 28-14 win over the hated Cleveland Browns in the final game of the season to assure head coach Mike Tomlin gets his 16th straight winning season but at the same time having all that work to be meaningless in the big picture after they failed to make the playoffs.

And they have no one to blame but themselves. Pittsburgh got off to a miserable start this season. 2-6 in the first eight games and nothing was going right. Everyone was pointing fingers at everyone else and fans wanted the entire coaching staff fired.

But the reality is you look at three games. A Week 2 loss to the New England Patriots 17-14, a Week 4 loss to the New York Jets by a score of 24-20 and a Week 7 loss to the Miami Dolphins 16-10. All those losses were inexcusable but if the Steelers win just one of them, this is a completely different conversation.

The team now has to shake this off and start looking at what will be a very busy offseason in terms of personnel decisions. Hopefully the coaching staff learned something from this year in terms of how an entire offseason didn’t prepare this team but one bye week did and they don’t repeat that mistake.

Let us know in the comments how you feel about the season. Was it a success because of the nine wins or does missing the playoffs spoil the whole thing?

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Steelers miss playoffs despite impressive win over Browns

The Steelers beat the Browns but the season ends.

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On a day when they had to take care of business, the Pittsburgh Steelers did it. But thanks to their own 2-6 start, the Steelers found themselves needing lots of help to sneak into the playoffs. So while the Steelers pulled off an impressive 28-14 win over the Browns, they will miss the playoffs thanks to the Miami Dolphins beating the New York Jets 9-6.

Pittsburgh played a very good football game aside from a slight lapse in the second quarter. Pittsburg made a point to go out and run the football and stop the run and succeded on both fronts. The offense put up 148 rushing yards led by Najee Harris with 84 and held the Browns top rusher, Nick Chubb to just 77 yards.

Defensively, the Steelers stepped up in the second half and really started to apply pressure to Cleveland quarterback Deshaun Watson, keeping the Browns offense totally off balance.

The win gives the Steelers a 9-8 record for the season.

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Officials give Browns TD after horrible roughing the passer call

The Steelers were on the wrong end of a horrible call on Sunday.

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It seems like every week NFL fans talk about how terrible the roughing the passer calls are around the league. This week the Pittsburgh Steelers were on the wrong end of one of the worst ones we’ve seen all season and it essentially handed the Browns a touchdown.

You can see the play below and make draw your own conclusions. Given how athletic and mobile Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson is, it isn’t like Cam Heyward could take for granted that he would go down easily. Watson has 38 yards rushing already.

As bad as this call was, Cleveland using the fresh set of downs to score and pull to 20-14 is even worse. Was it a makeup call for the missed facemask on Larry Ogunjobi? Maybe so. Let us know in the comments what you think about the call and if you think it was a good call.

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