If you could go back in time earlier in 2020 when Pittsburgh fans were absolutely elated as their team went to 11-0 and really were looking unstoppable then tell them that their team was going to barely make the playoffs and then get eliminated in the first round they probably would have laughed at you.
I know that I was watching the Steelers and their domination of most of their opponents with a sense of awe in how they seemed to quite easily walk all over the teams they faced including and especially the Cleveland Browns.
It is difficult to determine what happened to this team that appeared to be headed for the big dance as no one seemed to "have their number" and it certainly wasn't the Browns who seemed to barely even turn up for the first game these two played against one another back in October of 2020. It was an extremely one sided affair that saw the Steelers go up by 24 points before the Browns even put any points on the board. It would be the only points they would score in that ill-fated game. In the second half the Steelers seemed to put on the brakes and focus on a primarily ground-based game designed to run out the clock.
The Browns looked hopeless and if we were to go back to October during the post game interviews and say that "The Browns are going to eliminate the Steelers in the first round of the playoffs," everyone would have just laughed and told you to get real.
Well something happened to the Steelers in early December and they started dropping games left and right. They went from looking like a top contender for the ring to a team that didn't look like they belonged in the playoffs at all. They dropped 4 of their last 5 regular season games to teams that on paper anyway, they were superior to. There was some speculation that they were resting up for the playoffs since they had already secured a position in it at that point, but when they lost to Cincinnati of all people (finished the season with an abysmal record of 3-10) things didn't look like they were taking a rest as much as many people had thought.
Their last game of the regular season pitted them, ironically, against the team they would eventually face in the first round of the playoffs, the Cleveland Browns. The Browns narrowly won this game 24-22 and this sent waves across the NFL boards about how the Steelers were having serious internal issues.
Despite all this, the bookmakers still favored the Steelers (-278)in their appearance in the first round of the playoffs. All ideas that the Pittsburgh side was "playing possum" at the end of the regular season were dashed as the Browns went 4 straight unanswered TD's in the first quarter. It was every 4 minutes or so that the Browns were scoring again, and again, and again.
Personally, I am happy to see this happen because if the Steelers actually DID take their foot off the gas to preserve their team in early Dec as has been speculated, that is kind of unfair to the fans. Also, the Browns have been terrible for so long that I kind of feel bad for the Doghouse and do enjoy seeing things get mixed up in the playoffs every now and then.
So now we only have 6 games left before the Super Bowl. Anyone out there care to make a prediction or two? Can Green Bay hold on or are they going to choke (as is tradition) when they face the Rams on the 16th? Can the Browns pull off a Cinderella story against the Chiefs on the 17th? It's going to be exciting, that is for sure.