Week 11 - Thursday

'76 Pittsburgh vs. '69 Cleveland

The 4-5 Steelers take on the struggling Cleveland team at home. Pittsburgh, with a win, looks to continue a fight with it's division rival Ravens. Cleveland, on the other hand, has only to hope for a 50% record.

The Steelers got the coin toss and took the first kick, but didn't get anything out of it. Instead, the Steelers and Browns would fight for field position for some time, despite some costly turnovers by Pittsburgh. So with the 1st quarter winding down, the game remained scoreless until Cockroft was able to hit a FG from 47 yards out.

As the 2nd quarter opened, Pittsburgh made another great drive after Swann grabbed a 36 yard catch, but a fumble on the next play gave Cleveland possession again. In fact, turnovers continued to be the theme for Pittsburgh. After one such fumble, Johnson got a 30 yard pass from Nelsen, Cleveland was able to setup for another FG and go up 6-0.

But with under 2 minutes in the half, Bradshaw started hitting some passes and moving the ball. After a pass interference from Cleveland, Bradshaw was at the goal line and a TD seemed sure. But the Browns defense held solid, and the Browns were still up 6-3 at half time.

The 3rd quarter seemed to play out much like the first, with Nelsen making some great drives but both sides playing good D to stop the scoring. But as the 3rd quarter wound down, Pittsburgh got Harris and Bleier moving past Cleveland, and finally Bleier pushed through the end zone on a 10 yard run to put Pittsburgh up 10-6.

With just 1 quarter to go, the game was clearly up for any team to grab. But Cleveland continued to have trouble grabbing more yardage, and Pittsburgh continued wearing down the Browns. But after a great series of plays, Pittsburgh was held to just a FG. Unfortunately for them, Gerela missed, and with it Cleveland's hopes stayed up.

In fact, as the final 2 minutes of the game ticked off, Nelsen started hitting receivers again. But in the the Steel Curtain pushed back, quite literally, as Holmes sacked Nelsen for a 23 yard loss. This put the Browns in a tough spot, and they ended up turning over on downs. From there, Pittsburgh had no problems wasting the clock. Pittsburgh wins 10-6.

It's impressive Pittsburgh didn't score more, they totaled 248 rushing yards, 136 of those from Harris alone. Cleveland, on the other hand, just barely broke 200 yards total offense.

For Cleveland, this marks their 5th straight loss. They have yet to win at home.

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