Week 17 instant reactions: Cleveland Browns end playoff drought

Defense still has issues

It’s hard to beat up on the Cleveland defense too much since they were without some of their key players such as Denzel Ward, Andrew Sendejo, and B.J. Goodson, but they simply have too many issues on that side of the ball.

This showed its head with an 11-play drive for Pittsburgh that covered 66 yards. It ended in three but never should have as the Browns surrendered two conversions on third-down, including a frustrating third-and-11.

On the following Steelers’ drive, they again gave up three points on a drive that had a third-and-nine conversion where JuJus Smith-Schuster picked up 26-yards on a pass from Mason Rudolph. As if that wasn’t enough, they then gave up 13-points in the fourth quarter to make this game much closer than it should have been.

Sure, they were without players but going against Pittsburgh backups with nothing to play for should have never been this stressful.

Vernon on the rise

Olivier Vernon continues to be a star for the Browns. He showed up more than once for Cleveland, with his first big play being a huge tackle for a loss in the run game. Then, he made sure to shut down Mason Rudolph and the Steelers as they were trying to score late in the second half.

With Pittsburgh threatening, Vernon broke through on a second-and-five and destroyed Rudolph on a sack. It was his ninth of the season and set the Steelers back eight-yards, forcing them to kick a field goal to make it a 10-6 game rather than going for the tie.

So while the Browns defense as a whole leaves a lot to be desired, they have had some key individual performances from players such as Vernon, who could be in line for quite the payday in the offseason — which will make up for the pay cut he took this past year to stick around with the Browns.