Coming back from a tough loss to the Vikings in London, the Browns are finally taking a break from the NFC North after getting three straight games against that division. Cleveland is heading to Pittsburgh for their third AFC North game of the young season to get a Steelers team that might be the new favorite to win the division after injuries to the Bengals and Ravens.
The Steelers were last in action in Dublin in Week 4, where they beat Minnesota, and they chose to take their bye week right after the Europe game. Coming off a Pittsburgh bye week and with Cleveland giving Dillon Gabriel his second start, the Browns have two troubling Mike Tomlin trends they will need to overcome to get the win.
Browns must overcome 2 concerning Mike Tomlin trends to knock off Steelers
Per Mark Kaboly, the Steelers are 14-4 in the Tomlin era, coming off a bye week. Additionally, Pittsburgh has a 26-6 record in Tomlin's tenure facing a rookie quarterback. Funny enough, the last time a team that started a rookie knocked off the Tomlin-led Steelers was in 2023, when Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw for just 165 yards on 43 attempts in a 13-10 ugly win in Cleveland.
It's not surprising to see Tomlin thrive off the bye week, especially as a long-tenured head coach. The extra week off to get guys rested, along with more time to game plan, should bode well for a coach of his caliber. You have to go all the way back to 2016 to find the last time Pittsburgh lost off a bye week, and that was an away game against the Ravens. If you want to find a loss off the bye at home, you'd have to look to 2014 for the only time that happened under Tomlin, where the Steelers lost to a 7-9 Saints team led by Drew Brees.
To make matters worse, we all know how bad Cleveland has been in Pittsburgh. Since 1999, they have won just three games there, and only two in the regular season. Their most recent win was the postseason win in the 2020 season (January 2021) in the COVID year, with little to no crowd, and before that, they hadn't won in Pittsburgh since 2003.
The trends are not in Cleveland's favor in the slightest in this one, but this isn't a Steelers team that feels anything close to unbeatable. Obviously, the Browns are going to need a strong defensive performance, but the offense needs to find a way to end its 20-point drought to give them a rest and take some of the pressure off with more explosives and downfield throws.