Pittsburgh equaled a record by accepting 28 points in the first quarter of its loss to Cleveland
The Pittsburgh Steelers came as wide favorites to beat the Cleveland Browns in the American Conference Wildcard Round, however, the story inside the field was very different than expected.
According to the “Football Power Index” of ESPN, Pittsburgh had a 67.9 percent chance of winning the game while bookmakers had them as favorites by 6 points.
But quite the opposite happened, with one nightmare after center Maurkice Pouncey made a mistake in the free kick and the ball went over the quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who could not prevent Karl Joseph from recovering on the diagonals to score the first touchdown in 14 seconds of play.
In the next offensive series, Roethlisberger threw an interception – the first of four – at MJ Stewart Jr. and the Browns capitalized on the delivery with a touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Jarvis Landry.
Before the end of the first quarter, with the Browns winning 21-0, Roethlisberger had his second delivery when Sheldrick REDWINE stole a pass from Diontae Johnson, Cleveland’s response being a Kareem Hunt scoring drag to place -28-0.
Roethlisberger’s third interception came with 10:11 to play in the second quarter when he was looking for Vance McDonald but, after a deflection, the ball ended up in the hands of defensive winger Porter Gustin. In the final quarter, Roethlisberger was intercepted by Sione Takitaki to seal the defeat. This is the first time in Roethlisberger’s career that he throws four interceptions in a playoff game..
Roethlisberger finished the game with 47 complete passes for 501 yards, becoming the leader in passing attempts in a playoff game, surpassing Steve Young’s 65 submissions, and also became the second quarterback in history to surpasses 500 yards in a postseason game, behind Tom Brady’s 505 yards against the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.
However, this collapse of the Steelers was only a confirmation of their terrible season finale in which they lost five of their last six games after starting the season with an 11-0 record. After losing unbeaten unexpectedly in Week 13 to Washington (23-17), Pittsburgh fell to the Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals and Browns twice, their only win being in Week 16, 28-24. , on the Indianapolis Colts.
The 28 points scored by Cleveland are the highest in NFL history since their 1970 merger and matched that set by the Oakland Raiders who scored 28 points against the Houston Oilers in the first quarter of their victory 56 -7 on December 21, 1969 in the AFL Divisional Round.
It is also the first time the Steelers have been beaten by 28 points in a quarter since October 1971 against the Kansas City Chiefs.
For the Browns, it is the first time they have forced four ball deliveries in a playoff game since the 1968 Divisional Round against the Dallas Cowboys, plus Kareem Hunt became Cleveland’s first player with two touchdown carries in a postseason game from Earnest Byner in the 1985 Divisional Round against the Miami Dolphins.