Steelers claim AFC’s final spot in upcoming NFL Playoffs

The Pittsburgh Steelers, meanwhile, took care of business on their end with a 28-12 victory over the Cleveland Browns to earn the final available postseason berth.

Most experts didn’t believe Buffalo would have enough motivation to outlast a Jets team that surely had all it needed to play well enough to win and advance to the postseason for the first time since 2010.

The Browns’ 3-13 record is their worst since 2000 when they were also 3-13. That was the other half of the equation the Steelers had to have to make it as the sixth and final playoff seed in the AFC.

Roethlisberger threaded a 17-yard TD pass to Brown with 58 seconds left in the second quarter, a score that gave the Steelers some breathing room after a rocky first 30 minutes. He was replaced by Chris Clark and said after the game that he didn’t yet know the severity of the injury. “If we have to do that, we have to watch and wait”.

As usual, it was the Roethlisberger-to-Brown connection that covered up Pittsburgh’s blemishes.

Ben Roethlisberger looked up in the fourth quarter and noticed Pittsburgh fans twirling their Terrible Towels with delight. In true Cleveland fashion though, nothing can come that easy.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 349 yards – including 187 to Antonio Brown, who had 13 catches and a touchdown – in the Steelers’ victory over the Browns (3-13). That’s a tradition as a Steeler defense, we take that seriously.

With the Jets and Bills starting at the same time, the Steelers will have to avoid temptation to check the out-of-town scoreboard.

“We’re just hopeful we get a win”, fan Walter Visage said. “I think we’ve done the latter”. He also had an end around for four yards the week prior.

Romeo Crennel (2008), Eric Mangini (2010), Pat Shurmur (2012) and Rob Chudzinski (2013) were all fired following season-finale losses to Pittsburgh. If Pettine is let go by owner Jimmy Haslam, Cleveland will begin searching for its eighth coach since 1999. Their secondary suffers weekly from the stubborn insistence that Antwan Blake get most of the snaps.

“We had our ups and downs man but that’s a resilient group and equally important is that that’s a tight group and they stayed together”, said Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers coach.

The Steelers, however, aren’t quite ready to heap all the blame on the defense.

-TE Heath Miller is a longtime nemesis for the Browns. Austin Davis was sacked seven times by six different Steelers. This will be the second start for Davis, who was on the wrong end of a 37-3 thumping against Cincinnati on December 6. If we know that you didn’t make a play or that you can do something better we’re going to tell you before the coaches get to you.

Even the week prior, when Bryant caught 10 passes, his longest reception in that game was just 15 yards, totaling 87 for the game-far from the big play threat that has become his reputation, and what has been expected of him.

Primanti Brothers tweeted from its official account Sunday: “We’re shippin’ sammiches for the #wildcard bout with the Bengals! Just get on the bus and reflect a little bit”.

The 10-6 Steelers have gone 6-2 over the last eight weeks.

Despite two turnovers, a missed field goal and Williams’ injury, the Steelers led 14-6 at halftime. For this exact reason, it’s hard to put this loss on one player or one play, but on the team as a whole for lack of ability to seize opportunities, their lackluster ball control, and inability to seize control of line of scrimmage.