Browns–Steelers rivalry
First meeting | October 7, 1950 Browns 30, Steelers 17 |
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Latest meeting | November 19, 2023 Browns 13, Steelers 10 |
Next meeting | 2024 |
Statistics | |
Meetings total | 145 |
All-time series | Steelers, 81–63–1 |
Regular season series | Steelers, 79–62–1 |
Postseason results | Steelers, 2–1
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Largest victory | Browns: 51–0 (1989) Steelers: 43–0 (1999) |
Longest win streak | Browns, 8 (1950–53) Steelers, 12 (2003–09) |
Current win streak | Browns, 1 |
Championship success | |
NFL Championships (10)
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The Browns–Steelers rivalry is a
The two teams have been part of the same division or conference since the Browns joined the NFL in 1950; they played in the NFL's Eastern Conference from 1950 to 1969 (known as the American Conference from 1950 to 1952), and the AFC North since 1970 (known as the AFC Central from 1970 to 2001. As such, they usually play twice per regular season.
The Steelers lead the overall series, 81–63–1. The teams have met three times in the playoffs, with the Steelers holding a 2–1 advantage.
The Steelers are one of four NFL teams with a winning record against every division rival after 50 games played against each of them (along with the Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, and Kansas City Chiefs). Conversely, the Browns are one of only four NFL teams with a losing record against every division rival after 50 games played against each of them (along with the Detroit Lions, New York Jets, and Los Angeles Chargers).
Similarities between the cities
The rivalry was primarily fueled by the close proximity between the two cities, as
Businesses
In recent times, Pittsburgh-area businesses have entered the Cleveland market by buying out local Cleveland-area competitors such as Giant Eagle, Dollar Bank, Howard Hanna Realty, and PNC Financial Services acquisition of National City Corp. Among other reasons, some Clevelanders didn't like the idea of a Pittsburgh-based bank buying National City because of the rivalry between the Browns and Steelers.[4] PNC and Giant Eagle are official team sponsors for both teams. In addition, natural expansion has occurred with companies with Western Pennsylvania roots with Vocelli Pizza and Altoona-based Sheetz making successful expansions into the Cleveland market.
Conversely,
Republic Steel, which was based in Cleveland, was the company that suggested to the Steelers that the team use the Steelmark logo on its helmets in 1962. The logo later became the Steelers primary trademark, and is arguably better known with the logo than the steel industry itself.
Coaches and players
The teams have also had various prominent players and coaches with roots in the other team. For instance, former Steelers head coach Chuck Noll is from Cleveland and played linebacker for the Browns. His successor as head coach, Bill Cowher, also played linebacker and special teams for the Browns, and was an assistant coach for the Browns from 1985 to 1988. Cowher was born and raised in Crafton, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Former Browns head coach Marty Schottenheimer is a native of Pittsburgh area suburb Canonsburg, along with his brother Kurt Schottenheimer, who was the Browns special teams coach from 1987 to 1988. Another Browns head coach, Bud Carson also had as his hometown a northern suburb of Pittsburgh and was a longtime Steelers coordinator under Chuck Noll.
Steelers Hall of Famer Jack Lambert is a native Ohioan and attended Kent State University, as did Akron, Ohio native James Harrison. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hails from Findlay, Ohio. Former punter Chris Gardocki played for three years for the Steelers, including the Super Bowl XL championship team, after playing five seasons with the Browns from 1999 to 2003. Former Steelers Offensive coordinator Bruce Arians held the same position with the Browns from 2001 to 2003.
History of the rivalry
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1950s and 1960s: Browns Dominance
The Browns and Steelers first met in 1950, the Browns' first NFL season after dominating the All-America Football Conference. The Browns continued their dominance in the NFL as they appeared in six straight NFL Championship games from 1950 to 1955, winning the NFL title in 1950, 1954, and 1955. During that time the Steelers were among the NFL's worst teams.
The Browns won the first meeting on October 7, 1950, 30–17 as they forced six Steelers turnovers. Later that season in Cleveland, the Browns won in a blowout, 45–7. The Browns would win the first eight meetings before the Steelers would finally beat their rivals in 1954. The Steelers won 55–27 in a game in which Ray Matthews had 150 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
The Browns continued their dominance throughout the late 1950s and 1960s, marked by several strong rushing performances by Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown. The Browns would hold a 31–9 series advantage through the first two decades of the rivalry.
1970s: Steelers Super Bowl run
After the
In the 1970s the Steelers began to even the playing field with the Browns, led by head coach
The Steelers opened Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 and won their first sixteen meetings with the Browns at that venue. During the 1970s, the teams each won five of the ten meetings in Cleveland. The Steelers ended the 1970s winning seven straight meetings and capped the decade by winning Super Bowls XIII and XIV to go along with their Super Bowl wins earlier in the decade (IX and X).
1980s and 1990s
The teams exchanged victories throughout the 1980s. In the first meeting of the decade, the Browns, led by quarterback
The Browns ended a 16-game losing streak at Three Rivers Stadium with a 27–24 victory in 1986. This was the first of four straight Browns wins in Pittsburgh from 1986 to 1989. In the 1989 season opener, the Browns defeated the Steelers 51–0 in Pittsburgh. This is the largest margin of victory in the rivalry and the worst loss in Steelers franchise history.
While the two exchanged victories in the '70s and '80s, by the 1990s the Steelers became the dominant team in the rivalry. Since the Browns' last series sweep in
After the 1995 season, the rivalry took a brief hiatus due to the
1999–2003: Browns rejoin the NFL
The name "Browns" returned to the NFL in
The Browns and Steelers would again split the series in 2000, with each team winning in their home stadium.
The two teams would meet in a
2004–2021: The Ben Roethlisberger era
The Steelers drafted QB
In Week 11 of 2006, the Steelers managed to tie the series at 55 games apiece between them and the Browns. They stunned the Browns 24-20 after Browns QB Charlie Frye's Hail Mary fell incomplete. The loss also left the Browns to finish last place in the division behind the Steelers.
In Week 1 of 2007, the Steelers defeated the Browns 34–7 to take a 56–55 lead in the overall series. This was the first time the Steelers led the series and the Steelers have not given the lead up since. Later that season, the Steelers came back from down 21–6 to win 31–28. The two teams finished the season at 10–6, tied atop the AFC North. The Steelers won the head-to-head tiebreaker, while the Browns failed to earn a wild card spot after losing a tiebreaker to the Tennessee Titans.
On December 10, 2009, the Browns defeated the Steelers 13–6, ending a 12-game winning streak for the Steelers. This game is believed to be the coldest game in the history of the rivalry with a wind chill around −10 °F (−23 °C).[8]
Roethlisberger continued his dominance of the Browns in the 2010s, going 12–1–1 against them in the decade. However, the majority of the games have been close and come down to the final minutes or one final play.
In Week 5 of the 2014 season, the 2–2 Browns routed the 3–2 Steelers in a 31–10 victory in Cleveland after suffering a narrow 30–27 loss to Pittsburgh in the season opener. The Steelers scored early with a field goal and kept the Browns scoreless in the first quarter. The Browns would dominate from the second quarter onward, however, and this win would propel the Browns to an eventual 6–3 record atop the AFC North. However, injuries and rookie QB Johnny Manziel's poor play would doom the Browns’ season, where they would finish with a 7–9 record while the Steelers won the division. The Browns' struggles continued and the team reached rock bottom in 2016 and 2017, as they went 1–31 in those two seasons combined.
On September 9, 2018, the teams played to a 21–21 tie. This marked the first and only tie game in the history of the rivalry.[9][10] The game saw the Steelers jump to a 21–7 lead, but the Browns mounted two successful drives to tie the game at 21–21 and send it to overtime. The Steelers committed 6 turnovers against a strong Browns defense, and Browns DE Myles Garrett was able to sack Roethlisberger three times in their first meeting. Going into overtime, Steelers kicker Chris Boswell missed a potential game-winning field goal. On a subsequent drive after a Browns 3-and-out, Roethlisberger had his 5th turnover of the game, a fumble recovered by Browns linebacker Joe Schobert. A field goal try by the Browns in the last seconds of overtime was blocked, resulting in the tie. The tie would come back to hurt the Steelers as they would finish 9–6–1, a half game behind the Baltimore Ravens for the AFC North title (had the Steelers won this game, they would have finished 10–6, tied with the Ravens, and would have won the tiebreaker). The Steelers missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013.[11]
On November 14, 2019, Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield notched his first win over the Steelers with a 21–7 victory, the Browns’ first win in the series since 2014. However, in the final seconds of the game, a brawl broke out between the two teams. With eight seconds remaining in the game, Browns DE Myles Garrett tackled Steelers QB Mason Rudolph after the latter completed a screen pass to RB Trey Edmunds. Rudolph had choice words for Garrett and unsuccessfully tried to pull Garrett's helmet off. Garrett then ripped off Rudolph's helmet and used it to hit Rudolph in the head while being restrained by Steelers C Maurkice Pouncey and Steelers G David DeCastro. Pouncey then jumped into the brawl by punching and kicking Garrett in the head several times. Browns DT Larry Ogunjobi was also involved in the scuffle by pushing Rudolph to the ground. Garrett, Ogunjobi, and Pouncey were ejected from the game. Following the game, Garrett was suspended for 6 games while Pouncey and Ogunjobi received 2-game and 1-game suspensions, respectively. Garrett's suspension was the longest in NFL history for a single on-field transgression.[12] On December 1, the teams met in Pittsburgh, in a game in which the winner would remain in the thick of the AFC wild card race and the loser would fall further behind. The Steelers, who had benched Rudolph in favor of third string Devlin Hodges, won 20–13 to improve to 7–5 while the Browns fell to 5–7, two games out of a playoff spot.[13]
On January 3, 2021, the Browns entered Week 17 at home and would clinch a playoff spot with a win over the Steelers. The Steelers rested a few of their starters, with Rudolph starting as quarterback. The Browns won 24–22 despite a late Steelers rally; the Browns stopped a Pittsburgh two-point conversion attempt that would have tied the game. The win meant that the 11–5 Browns clinched the 6-seed and faced the Steelers in Pittsburgh for a rematch in the
Season-by-season results
Cleveland Browns vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Season-by-Season Results | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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1950s (Browns, 16–4)
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1960s (Browns, 15–5)
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1970s (Steelers, 15–5)
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1980s (Browns, 12–8)
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1990s (Steelers, 10–5)
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2000s (Steelers, 18–3)
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2010s (Steelers, 16–3–1)
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2020s (Steelers, 5–4)
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Summary of Results
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Records
- The greatest defeat in Steelers history occurred on September 10, 1989 in Pittsburgh when the Browns won 51–0. Ten years later, the Steelers defeated the Browns in their first game after rejoining the NFL in 1999, 43–0, still the revived Browns' worst loss as well as the Steelers' most lopsided win over the Browns.
- The game between the Steelers and the Browns is the most played rivalry in the AFC and seventh-most played in the NFL.
References
- ^ "Steelers-Browns Rivalry Over?". CBSPittsburgh.com. October 14, 2010. Retrieved February 9, 2011.
- ^ Schudel, Jeff (August 19, 2009). "BROWNS NOTES: No blackout, thanks to WKYC". The Morning Journal.
- ^ Williams, Tom (2011-09-09). "BROWNS vs. STEELERS". The Vindicator. Archived from the original on 2019-07-01.
- ^ McIntyre, Michael K. (October 25, 2008). "Fighting words if you're Steelers". Cleveland.com.
- ^ Blocks, Starting (2010-10-15). "Cleveland Browns-Pittsburgh Steelers classics: 27-26 Browns win, 1980". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
- ^ Shapiro, Leonard. "OWNERS APPROVE MOVE OF NFL TEAM TO BALTIMORE". The Washington Post. Retrieved September 11, 2018.
- ^ Sandomir, Richard (November 12, 1995). "A City Fights To Save The Browns". The New York Times. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
- ^ "Pittsburgh Steelers at Cleveland Browns - December 10th, 2009". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
- ^ Dator, James (2018-09-09). "Browns-Steelers ended in a tie, and it was stupid in every possible way". SBNation.com. SB Nation. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
- ^ "Browns don't lose, but tie Steelers in sloppy affair". NFL.com. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
- ^ Bouchette, Ed (December 30, 2018). "Steelers miss playoffs for the first time since 2013". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
- ^ Carrisimo, Justin; Smith, Stephen (2019-11-15). "Cleveland Browns' Myles Garrett suspended by NFL after hitting Pittsburgh Steelers QB with helmet". CBS News. Retrieved 2019-11-16.
- ^ Jeff.Hartman (2019-12-02). "AFC North Recap: Steelers make a statement in Week 13 win over the Browns". Behind the Steel Curtain. Retrieved 2019-12-03.
- ^ "Steelers WR JuJu Smith-Schuster sees the Browns as 'nameless gray faces'". Browns Wire. 2021-01-08. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
- ^ Selbe, Nick (10 January 2021). "Browns Ambush Steelers for First Playoff Win Since 1994". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved 2021-01-11.
Further reading
- Peterson, Richard; Peterson, Stephen (2020). The Turnpike Rivalry: The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. ISBN 9781606354131.
External links
- Browns vs Steelers at pro-football-reference.com
- Cleveland vs Pittsburgh Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine at afc-north.com