What we learned from Steelers bittersweet win versus the Browns

The Steelers defense stifled the Browns offense en route to helping secure victory

To say that the Steelers defense stifled the Browns offense would be an understatement.  We held the Browns offense to less than a fifty percent conversion rate on third downs, forced two INTs, and generated seven sacks.  That’s a dominant performance if there ever was one.

Five players contributed to the ‘sack fest’ with Alex Highsmith contributing two and a half sacks to the cause.  This was truly a total team effort on defense.  We played the style of defense that fans had become accustomed to witnessing.

The question I have is this: Where was that type of performance all year? I don’t want to do the ‘woulda, shoulda, coulda’ here, but if we could have turned in one more performance as we had against the Browns, we probably would be talking about a Steelers playoff game rather than the end of the 2022 season.

No performance is perfect and this one was certainly not, but it was close enough to being perfect that you have to wonder what could have been and what could be in 2023 and beyond.  Like the offense, we have pieces on defense around which we can build.

Let’s take a look at what else we learned.