Pittsburgh Steelers Week 11 Recap: Luck
Finally Ran Out

The Steelers vs. The Browns. With 145 meetings, it is the oldest rivalry and the most storied in the AFC.

The two divisional foes have a natural rivalry due to how similar the two cities are and how close in distance they are. It is sometimes called the Turnpike Rivalry or Turnpike War because the majority of the driving route between the two cities are via the Ohio and Pennsylvania turnpikes.

The two teams have been part of the same division or conference since the Browns joined the NFL in 1950. They played in the NFL's Eastern Conference from 1950 to 1969 (known as the American Conference from 1950 to 1952), the AFC Central from 1970 to 2001, and the AFC NORTH beginning in 2002.
 

As such, they usually play twice every regular season. The Steelers lead the overall series, 81–63–1. The teams have met three times in the playoffs, with the Steelers holding a 2–1 advantage.
 

This is an OLD SCHOOL rivalry. They hate us, we hate them. They hate us because we big brother them. We hate them because they annoy us like a little brother. It’s no secret that Pittsburgh has accomplished way more than
Cleveland since the merger. Six Super Bowl victories to Zero.

Also, just in terms of regular season success too. The Browns are usually NOT GOOD. While the Steelers are never not good. We might not have GREAT seasons but never in the tank seasons. We haven’t had a losing season since Mike Tomlin has been the head coach. That’s since 2007. 16 years in a row with a winning season. So you can see why Browns fans (and most of the NFL) hates the Steelers.

It’s the same with The Patriots in the 2000s and The Cowboys in the 90s. People hate the dynasties of the NFL. Granted the Steelers haven’t been a dynasty since the 70s but at the end of the day we always are in contention, always have a winning season and always compete for a Super Bowl.

The Browns not so much, they even went WINLESS in a season. So you know these games mean something for both sides. Cleveland wants to beat us because for them it’s like they beat the evil empire.
 

For us, we want to beat Cleveland because we feel like they don’t even deserve to be on the same field as us (most years). This year is a little different. Pittsburgh and Cleveland are both in their own ways trying to get it all together.

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On paper, both have very talented teams. Cleveland has the best defense in the entire NFL and Pittsburgh’s defense is quite good as well.

Pittsburgh has been out gained in every single game we played this season but, somehow we ended up with a 6-3 Record anyways. But I’ve just been waiting for the other shoe to drop. It always felt like eventually are luck would run out.

Well, and in all of the places for it to happen… it finally did in Cleveland.
Again, it’s no secret that Pittsburgh’s offense has been absolutely
abysmal. And it’s no secret that Cleveland’s defense is extraordinary.
You do the math and that doesn’t work out in Pittsburgh's favor. Somehow we still only lost 13-10.

I feel like it would’ve been a lot worse if Deshaun Watson was playing for the Browns. Because our defense did a good job of shutting them down, but we couldn’t get anything going ourselves on offense.
 

The only success we had, was running the ball. We needed KennyPickett to make some throws in the fourth quarter to set up a game- winning field goal and he couldn’t make them. I’ve been a public supporter of Kenny and really wanted the Steelers to draft him since he was a PITT Player. I always said the kid had a lot of potential too. I believed as his best, a good comparison would be Derek Carr.

Now some people might say “Derek Carr is not that good”, but I highly disagree especially as the Raiders starting QB, I feel like he was very underrated. He was always dealing with crazy circumstances.
 

So I had a lot of hope for Kenny and it wasn’t gonna be easy. Ben
Roethlisberger left some giant shoes behind. But I can admit so far Kenny hasn’t lived up to it. It’s only his second season as a quarterback, and his first full season as a starting quarterback. So, I’m willing to still give him a chance and give him some time. Other Steeler fans, as per usual, are panicking and want him to be replaced already.
 

Pittsburgh always wants to replace our quarterback, doesn’t matter who it is, doesn’t matter how good they play, there’s always someone better in their mind. As long as we finish with a winning record and we make the
playoffs, I consider that a successful year, but Kenny will have to have a better season. 

Because if he doesn’t the next year, we have to move on and find a
different starting quarterback. I still believe in Kenny and I still believe this team has the potential do great things. We just aren’t there yet. And this week our luck finally ran out. To the damn Browns of all teams.
 

AFC North standing
Ravens 8-3
Browns 7-3
Steelers 6-4
Bengals 5-5