How the Browns set an NFL postseason record with 28 first-quarter points

Most everybody expected a blowout in the Steelers-Browns wild-card game. Most everybody was right… about the wrong team.

The Browns came into their Sunday night wild-card game against the Steelers with multiple players and coaches out due to COVID. The last time Ben Roethlisberger started a game, he lit the Colts up in Week 16 with the deep throws he hadn’t shown all season.

So, this game looked for all the world like a blowout. So far it is, but not in the way anybody expected. When Browns running back Kareem Hunt ambled eight yards for his second rushing touchdown of the night, that and the subsequent extra point put the Browns up 28-0, which is a record for first-quarter scoring in the postseason at any level of professional football.

The Browns were buttressed by three early turnovers. There was this bad snap from center Maurkice Pouncey to Roethlisberger with 14 seconds gone, which safety Karl Joseph recovered in the end zone.

If the NFL wanted more, the NFL was about to get it. On Pittsburgh’s subsequent possession, Roethlisberger threw a pick to cornerback M.J. Stewart…

…and this set up Baker Mayfield’s 40-yard touchdown pass to Jarvis Landry.

Pittsburgh had a three-and-out on its next possession, but they weren’t done gifting. Hunt scored his first rushing touchdown on the following drive. And then, with 3:33 left in the first quarter, Roethlisberger threw over the middle to receiver Diontae Johnson, who revised the Steelers’ drop issues earlier in the season for another pick…

…and that led to Hunt’s second rushing touchdown. Safe to say that if the Steelers are going to get punked up front like this all night, there’s no chance for a comeback.

Per NBC, the home team has a .908 winning percentage when winning the turnover battle, and a .342 win percentage when losing it. Road teams have a .658 win percentage when winning the turnover battle, and an .092 win percentage when losing it.

At the end of the first quarter, the Browns had a 91% Win Probability Rate. Lot of ballgame left, as they say, but this is something nobody expected.