Cleveland Browns: Five most difficult road games in 2017

1. Pittsburgh Steelers, Week 17

So many factors go into Pittsburgh’s strong home-field advantage on a normal Sunday. But when Cleveland comes, it only virtually guarantees the Steelers a victory.

In 2016, Cleveland had everything go their way. They dominated Landry Jones and the Steelers for almost the entire Week 17 contest. Ben Roethlisberger, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown were all sitting out to rest for the next week’s playoff game. And the Browns lost, somehow, in overtime.

Maybe it was the Isaiah Crowell fumble when the Browns were about to set up for a game-winning field goal, or the Briean Boddy-Calhoun fumble as he was going into the end zone for a touchdown, or Cleveland’s inability to finish with first-and-goal at the two-yard-line in overtime. Or maybe it was the combination of all three which led to a miraculous collapse.

The reality is, 2016’s loss was just a blip in time when considering the history of these two teams at Heinz Field.

Nobody is saying any of these matchups will be easy for the Browns. That’s why they make the list of most difficult road games this season. However, Cleveland fans shouldn’t chalk these five contests up as losses just because past results and current records may indicate that this should be the case.

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The Browns would prove a lot by taking one or more of these games this season and show the rest of football that they can be a force to be reckoned with, even away from the friendly confines of their home stadium.