Steelers vs. Browns: Five questions with Dawg Pound Daily
By Kim Myers
The Steelers finish their home stand before their bye week with some AFC North action when the 2-7 Cleveland Browns come to town. The Steelers are coming off of a win over the Oakland Raiders last week and the Browns are coming off of extra rest having lost to the Bengals last Thursday night.
Throughout the season Still Curtain will be taking you inside to get the dirt on the opposing team through the FanSided network. We’ll be interviewing the opposing teams’ site to get you the inside info on the opposition.
This week we have Thomas Moore from Dawg Pound Daily, FanSided’s Cleveland Browns-themed site. Moore will be giving us the dirt on the quarterback battle in Cleveland as well as a prediction with score for the game.
What is the likelihood that Josh McCown gets the start on Sunday?
As we get closer to Sunday it seems less likely. McCown has been throwing this week and has been described by head coach Mike Pettine as looking “functional,” which is always want you want to hear about your starting quarterback.
The Browns have been giving Johnny Manziel more time with the first team in practice, and with the Browns having a bye following Sunday’s game, it may be in everyone’s best interest to give McCown a few more weeks of healing time.
Would Browns fans rather see Johnny Manziel get extended time as a starter to get a better idea if he could be the quarterback for the long-term?
There are a group of fans who have hated Josh McCown from the moment he was signed, have done nothing but criticize him despite him being mostly productive, and continue to make every excuse imaginable for Manziel. Those fans have wanted Manziel to start from day one, no matter what his shortcomings were or continue to be.
Then there are those fans that see Manziel for what he is — a raw quarterback who is nowhere close to being an NFL starter.
But with the season circling the drain and little hope that things will turn around soon, those two sides are moving closer together in accepting that if the time is not here, it will soon be to just let Manziel play.
Are Browns fans expecting a shake up from owner Jimmy Haslam if there is another below .500 season?
Again, it depends. (Life as a Browns fan is a non-stop picnic.)
There are those who want to blow things up, again, immediately. Others realize that one of the main reasons why the Browns continue to be in situations like this is that they continue to blow things up every couple of years.
This ties into the previous question in some ways, as if general manager Ray Farmer and head coach Mike Pettine have been told that their continued employment is dependent on wins and losses, then they need to play McCown as he gives the Browns the best chance to win.
But if wins are not the sole determining factor, then the time is coming soon to make some changes to the lineup and start focusing on getting a head start on 2016.
The bigger problem may be that the real issues with this team are higher up than general manager and head coach and are not the kind of positions where change can be made.
The Steelers and Browns rivalry surely isn’t what it used to be. What AFC North team do Browns fans consider their biggest rivals?
Baltimore will always hold a special place because of Art Modell, and nobody really cares about the Bengals as many younger fans don’t even know about the Paul Brown connection between the two teams.
In truth it will always be the Steelers. The rivalry with Pittsburgh, while one-sided (in both teams’ favor) over the years, is still the longest the Browns have with any of the divisional teams. Fans still talk about the games during the 1970s, where they were when the Browns broke the Three Rivers jinx, the opening day win in 1989 and everything else good or bad about the series.
It may be the old-timers keeping the embers of the rivalry hot, but it is still there.
What is your prediction with score for the game?
If the game was in Cleveland, we may be tempted to say the Browns – especially if Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t play on Sunday.
But the reality is that the Browns have only won in Pittsburgh twice since 1989, and with the way things are going this isn’t the weekend to see them adding win number three.
Pittsburgh 31, Cleveland 10
There you have it, Steeler Nation. What would you have asked differently about the Steelers and Browns matchup?
Be sure to check out Dawg Pound Daily for my answers to Tom’s questions.
Here we go Steelers! Here we go!