Cleveland – the city that heals what’s ailin’ ya!

How about that performance Nation?

What’s that you say David Todd?

#Steelers completely dominate the game & plenty of fans pissed off they didn’t dominate enuf.

— David Todd (@DavidMTodd) November 20, 2016

Well, you can’t please everyone I guess!

I’m not gonna waste a lot of time here Nation, because there is plenty to highlight. So let’s look at the Good, Bad and the Ugly of this Steelers victory!

The Good

James Harrison

Deebo played well. I can’t help but give the old guy (which I say because I am far far far away and he cannot hurt me J) played a solid game, and got that elusive sack to take over the all-time lead.

James Harrison 77.5 Total Sacks – Jason Gildon 76.5.

Nation, I met Harrison a few weeks ago (before the KC game) and he was absolutely the nicest dude. My daughter gave him a hug, and we are now the proud owners of the weirdest family photo of all time (me, my wife, my daughter and Uncle Deebo).

Congratulations to James Harrison – he may be the 9^th wonder of the world. Can’t wait to see him abuse the Colts O-line next week!

Stephon Tuitt

Tuitt played like he was possessed. He had 2.5 sacks on the day, 6 tackles with 4 solo’s.

And that hit on McCown.

BOOM!

He was the guy we expected him to be at the beginning of the season. It was a great game for him.

All I can say is “Do It Tuitt”!

The Rest of the Defense

I could call out so many other guys on the defense. Lawrence Timmons (despite one not wise choice to take out Kessler a little late) was flat out fantastic. He led the team with 8 tackles, 5 solo and a sack. They changed things up with Timmons and Harrison this week, and it showed.

Arthur Moats had 1 ½ sacks. Artie had a pick, and some good plays (yeah, he got beat at least once too, but that’s ok). He missed at least two others that he could have had as well. Mike Mitchell was absolutely laying the wood. (I could have done without the swagger after laying out Pryor, frankly because it was a close call, and he could have been penalized for it).

Ryan Shazier – DAMN! Shazam was all over the place. Tackles for loss, strip sacks, whatever! 7 tackles, 6 solo and that strip sack. Great great game!

The Defense won this game. They scored. They crushed.

8 Freaking sacks (and as I will discuss later, it should have been more!)

I do have a few issues with a couple things, but we’ll mention those in a bit. It was an arrow up performance and I loved it!

Le’Veon Bell

Another record setter. Bell and the O-line (got to give credit to the O-line, cause they blocked very well against a Cleveland D-line that can be good – two words – Danny Shelton!) had a solid and productive game!

The Bell was wrung for 146 yards on 28 carries. He got a TD, and also had 8 receptions for 55 yards. Le’veon played a great game, and in the process he set the record for quickest player to amass 5,000 all-purpose yards, and as if that wasn’t enough, he was also the first Steelers back to record two 50-catch seasons.

Aggression

Ok, let me start this off by saying that the Steelers got lucky getting that TD at the end of the first half. I didn’t call Ben out for letting time run out, but man, they were so lucky that the Browns got called for two flags on two misses, allowing Le’Veon to rush for that score.

That being said – I love the decision by Tomlin, and I would have loved it even if it didn’t work. It changed the tone of the game, and frankly it sent a message to the players.

You want to win – go win

Aggression! That’s what I want out of my coach.

Yes, at times it will be second guessed, and I guarantee many many many members of the Nation out there are looking at it from the standpoint of “what if it didn’t work”.

I say – pffffffft! It did work, and I would rather have him go for it there than kick another field goal. I loved the aggression, and honestly, I think it rubbed off on the players, especially the defense, in the second half.

The Bad

4^th Down

Nation, for as good as the defense looked most of the game, there was one huge ugly glaring stat that I just can’t shy away from.

The Browns were 5-5 on fourth down.

Damn.

• 4^th and 9 – Kessler to Pryor for a first down.
• 4^th and 9 – McCown to Barnidge for a first down.
• 4^th and 8 – McCown to Pryor for a first down.
• 4^th and 10 – roughing the passer on Daniel McCullers for a first down. (yeah, this one doesn’t count, but I don’t care.)
• 4^th and 1 – Isaiah Crowell rush for a first down.
• 4^th and 5 – McCown to DeValve for a first down.

Sorry, but that can’t be categorized as anything but bad fourth down defense. Seriously, the last 4 of those were on the same drive!

That’s right, the Browns got 4 first downs on fourth down in one drive.

It just annoys me, and I wish I didn’t have to bring it up, but it was put on tape, and it has to be owned.

As well as they played, this one area was not good.

The Ugly

The Officials. Again. And Even Worse. Please.

I could probably go on for days about the refs.

Let’s just start with this one – Timmons gets called for hands to the face, and when you review it, his hands were clearly high, but not in the face, they were on the top of the guy’s jersey. Questionable call at best.

There was another call against us that I thought was questionable at best, but you know what, I’ll let that one go, because the ineptitude of the refs was so bad that there is a treasure trove of issues.

How many times does Browns CB Joe Haden get to grab AB’s jersey?

How often can Joe Thomas and the rest of the Browns O-line get to mug the Steelers defenders and yet no holding is called. 8 sacks should have been 16! That O-line was swiss cheese for us, and I think the refs started feeling bad for them and basically said “Do whatever you have to do to stop them, ‘cause you know, damn…”

It has never been more true to say that the officiating was offensive. I thought they were bad last week, but OMG. I mean really.

Fire all of them.

I am beside myself with how bad officiating has gotten this year. It’s not just in our games, it’s all over the place. When Tomlin says “I thought the officiating was questionable at times” in his presser (which might get him a nice little Fed-Ex envelope this week) you know it was bad.

Conclusion

This was a good day Nation. I mean 8 sacks, a pick, a strip sack for a TD. The D played well. Yeah, there are still issues, but you know what, this was a needle pointing up kind of performance, on the road and under adverse conditions.

AB set a record as well, and that should be pointed out (Fastest to 600 receptions in NFL history).

Man, Cleveland really does have the cure for what ails ya!

I’ll take it.

Short week, so look for the Indianapolis preview coming soon. Until next time Nation!