Steelers vs. Browns: Highlights, game tracker for Week 1

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns faced off in Week 1 of the 2018 NFL season at FirstEnergy Stadium. Highlights and recap of the matchup.

One of the more highly anticipated games of the opening weekend was the Pittsburgh Steelers heading to Ohio to take on the Cleveland Browns. This AFC North matchup is usually a better game than the records indicate, but still, the Steelers have been dominant in the rivalry recently.

That could change this year. The Browns changed out more than 50 percent of their roster from their horrendous 0-16 season as there are 31 new faces on the 53 man roster. They have a new starting quarterback in Tyrod Taylor, receiver in Jarvis Landry, running back in Carlos Hyde.

It was clear early on that these two teams were going to be competitive. Both defenses were clearly ready to play as the game began with four-straight drives that ended in punts. The fifth drive wasn’t much better as Ben Roethlisberger threw the first of three interceptions that he would throw on the day.

However, it was the Steelers who got on the scoreboard first. After Cleveland failed to convert off the Denzel Ward pick, Pittsburgh marched 88 yards down the field and went ahead with a James Conner touchdown run. Unfortunately, that was really all either team could muster in the first half, aside from Big Ben tossing his other two interceptions.

Cleveland came out of the locker room at halftime with a fire beneath them though. They moved the ball incredibly well on the ground and capped off the drive with a 20-yard touchdown run from Taylor. However, Pittsburgh answered emphatically on the next drive after a JuJu Smith-Schuster bomb and then an Antonio Brown touchdown.

The Browns punted after their next drive and allowed Ryan Switzer to come up with a long return. That set them up with great field position and they capitalized to take a 21-7 lead on another score from Conner on the ground. That then set up some more defensive football as both teams tried to get their footing.

However, the Cleveland defense set them up big as Myles Garrett forced Conner to fumble, which Jabrill Peppers recovered. Carlos Hyde then punched it in to put them within a touchdown. After another big defensive stand, they came up huge again with a Taylor pass to Josh Gordon for a jump ball in the end zone to tie it up.

Both teams had an opportunity with the ball at the end of the fourth quarter, but nothing truly developed as Taylor’s attempt at a bomb to Gordon came up short and was picked off. That sent the game to overtime, where the Browns won the toss and elected to receive. However, their first drive resulted in little and they were forced to punt.

Pittsburgh’s opening drive was somehow worse than Cleveland’s as they lost a ton of yardage on busted plays and penalties and were forced to punt. Again though, the Browns were unable to do anything with it and had to punt once again with about 4:30 remaining on the clock.

There were finally some signs of offensive life on the next drive for the Steelers as they moved the ball seemingly into field goal range. However, when Chris Boswell got up to make the kick, he couldn’t convert in the rain and the miss left the game tied as the Browns got the ball back with under two minutes remaining. Again, though, nothing was doing on that as it was a quick punt.

With Pittsburgh trying to again go down the field, Roethlisberger dropped back and was lit up as he threw, causing the ball to pop up and be intercepted by Joe Schobert, who then made a nice return to the Pittsburgh 24-yard line, seemingly setting them up for a huge win. In heartbreaking fashion, however, the Zane Gonzalez field goal was blocked and went down as no good.

There wasn’t enough time for the Steelers to drive following that, thus ending the game in a tie.

Highlights

Rookie Denzel Ward came up with a big, drive-stopping play as he dove in front of a pass intended for Antonio Brown to notch his first-career interception.

Early in the second quarterback, Roethlisberger took the offense into his own hands with this nifty scramble.

No Bell, no problem as James Conner was the one who got the Steelers on the board first in this rainy affair.

Jarvis Landry made sure that the Steelers weren’t going to punk his Browns, coming up with a crazy grab on the ensuing drive.

The Browns defense continued to show signs of life, with Damarious Randall coming up with the second pick off of Big Ben in the first half.

And business kept booming for the Cleveland defense, particularly for the rookie Ward as he came up with his second interception.

Early in the third quarter, Cleveland then finally put an offensive mark on the game as Taylor scampered for 20 yards into the end zone.

Antonio Brown was sure to not let the Browns get too far ahead of themselves, answering with a score after Juju Smith-Schuster made a monster play down the field.

Carlos Hyde wasn’t going to let Pittsburgh run away with it, however. He came up with a big touchdown to put his team within a touchdown.

https://twitter.com/Browns/status/1038880059518406656

Myles Garrett then came up with his second sack of the day, forcing the fumble and giving Cleveland another chance on the turnover.

After getting the ball back, Tyrod Taylor found his groove and found Josh Gordon for an unreal game-tying touchdown grab.

In overtime with Pittsburgh trying to drive, Roethlisberger was hit and Joe Schobert picked him off to put Cleveland in prime position to win.

There is always drama with the Browns, for better or worse, and there will certainly be more with the Steelers this season. Subsequently, keep an eye on both of these teams and how things transpire for them throughout the rest of 2018.