Steelers win, earn playoff berth

Brandon Boykin – After a sack last week, he forced a fumble and recovered a fumble with four tackles this week and showed to be a tough player in coverage and fighting through blockers. The ensuing eight-play, 70-yard drive was capped off by a two-yard touchdown pass to Heath Miller. Brown beat the coverage of Tashaun Gipson, a free safety playing cornerback, got behind safety Jordan Poyer on a post route and caught a 17-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger. It’s not ideal, but it’s all the Steelers have as they enter the season finale against the Browns, now absent from the postseason for 13 years and counting.

Pittsburgh has multiple weapons on offense, led by wide receiver Antonio Brown. He also found the end zone on the end of a 17-yard pass from Roethlisberger. In the final two games he had two receptions for six yards.

For the season, he caught 136 passes for 1,834 yards and 10 touchdowns. He did not return to the game.

Roethlisberger accepted blame for the unexpected loss to the Ravens and could take out his frustrations on Cleveland’s injury-decimated secondary.

The Steelers (9-6) never imagined being in this predicament after winning five of six – overcoming key injuries along the way – to position themselves for another playoff berth. He is 9-2 in games played in Cleveland. He’ll need to step up big time if the Browns are to compete. They were bailed out with a nice grab from Barnidge, only to give it away once again as Davis fumbled the ball while getting sacked. Fitzgerald Toussaint, who began the season on the practice squad, replaced Williams.

Fortunately for the Steelers, the Browns turned it over more.

The man had told Foster he loved him, then provided a series of Buffalo Bills-New York Jets down, distance and score updates throughout the fourth quarter of the Steelers’ 28-12 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday. Roethlisberger proceeded to have a record game with 22 of 33 completions for 379 yards and three touchdowns. Cleveland was unable to get any push on the defensive side, and in form with the rest of the season, Danny Shelton was a big non-factor. Rex Ryan comes through for the Steelers, and Pittsburgh beats up on Johnny Manziel. Pittsburgh’s strength up front, combined with Cleveland’s weak offensive line, was a combination that was unwinnable for the Browns.

Newton ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more touchdowns for the Panthers (15-1).

Credit Harbaugh and his staff for keeping a team decimated by injuries competitive in almost every contest this season. Backup Austin Davis will get his second start of the season. Although the Steelers were able to tally 242 total yards on offense in the first half, sloppy play and mistakes enabled the Browns to stick close and stay within striking distance. The problem being that they were unable to capitalize on those opportunities, giving the ball back through either punt’s, turnover on downs, or turnovers of their own. But they will go into the offseason on a high note, after beating the Falcons for the second time this season.

Because of that, because the Steelers hit that huge pothole on their second-half roll, they’re not necessarily the team nobody wants to face.

Zebra hunting: + In terms of some of the other performances by Ol’ Blind Pete Morelli’s crew this year, it was a good afternoon, as no one got an extra down or timeout or mysteriously lost time.