Browns vs Steelers: 3 storylines in Week 18
By John Suchan
No.1: Will the Browns offense continue to make progress?
To say the least, it’s been a very interesting season for the Browns offense. They played most of the year with Jacoby Brissett starting at quarterback. He took them through the first 11 games, where they went 4-7. Enter Deshaun Watson, who had been suspended and his first five games have been a dress rehearsal in preparation for next season.
While fans want to see Cleveland win, that has been hard to accept because of the ongoing offensive struggles. There have been two very different types of quarterbacks leading this Cleveland offense, and naturally, these types of problems are going to exist. However, there has been some noticeable improvement over the course of the last several games for Watson and that’s the good news going into 2023.
In the win against the Washington Commanders, it was a tale of two halves. The first half for Cleveland was hard to watch, as they struggled to move the ball with any consistency and stalled out in the red zone a couple of times. Watson looked confused and scattered with his decisions.
But in the second half, they hit their stride as Watson found receivers Amari Cooper and Donovan Peoples-Jones open for big plays that ended up leading to the Browns scoring three touchdowns in a 24-10 win.
We can watch to see if Watson continues to improve but also pay attention to running back Nick Chubb as he’s closing in on two personal records. He has been sitting on 12 touchdowns for several weeks now but if he can get one more, he will have a career-best 13. In addition, he is at 1,448 yards rushing. If he can collect 47 more yards. He will surpass his best season in 2019 in terms of rushing yards.
Browns and Steelers games are always fun and entertaining. While Pittsburgh is coming in on a three-game win streak, Cleveland is also playing better with Watson under center so it should be another fun game to watch.
