Everyone who sat through the “football game” played between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns on Sunday deserves some sort of refund. Aaron Rodgers, the Steelers, Myles Garrett and the Browns should be working with some sort of relief program to make sure that observers of that game are fairly compensated for their time. Given the stakes of everything involved, it had to be one of the most unrewarding games of the entire season. The only solace here is for Browns fans who hate the Steelers — which is always fair.
A lot went wrong in this game, but those things can be put under three umbrellas that help describe just how bad this game was, and how little encouragement it provides the Steelers in their winner-take-all AFC North title game against the Baltimore Ravens this Sunday night.
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Aaron Rodgers borderline refused to participate in the game
Garrett’s chase of the sack record was the biggest story coming into the game, but Rodgers exited the weekend as the headline with his total lack of desire to end up as Garrett’s record-breaking sack. Rodgers’ top priority in this game was avoiding that sack at all costs, to the point it probably cost the Steelers the game at the end of the day.
According to TruMedia, Rodgers’ 2.31 seconds average to throw was only his fifth-fastest mark of the season, but the throws he made were a detriment to the overall function of the offense. There were hospital balls thrown behind the line of scrimmage, immediate flings of the football for WRs who weren’t ready for them, and what looked like generally going out of his way to not be sacked by Garrett.
“To an extent, I feel like they were more worried about keeping me away from Aaron than getting the win,” Garrett said afterward.
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“Wasn’t on my mind,” Rodgers said about the sack record.
A good handful of these passing plays weren’t allowed to develop, tanking the Steelers’ chances of scoring until late in the game when they needed a touchdown just to tie in the waning seconds. It was avoidance at its peak, which would have been funny save for one small, tiny detail that should’ve been more relevant to the Steelers during this game: THEY STILL NEEDED TO WIN!
If they had won the Steelers wouldn’t even need to play their starters this weekend against the Ravens. They would have clinched the division and been able to play a consequence-free Week 18 game to try and get healthy for the wild-card round. Instead, they now play a win-or-go home against the much-improved Ravens, who just ran for 300 yards against the Green Bay Packers to keep their playoff hopes alive.
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The Ravens don’t have a pass rusher of Garrett’s level, but with DK Metcalf missing his second straight game due to suspension in Week 18, deeper-developing plays might be scarce again.
What needs to change for the Steelers’ offense this week?
“Not much,” Rodgers said Sunday. “Just gotta execute better.”
This isn’t to say that the Steelers definitely would have won that game if they and Rodgers were more aggressive throughout the course of the game, but they would have had a better chance for sure. Ultimately their total avoidance of Garrett ended up being unnecessary because …
Myles Garrett essentially took himself out of the game
Look, it’s easy to understand why Garrett was feeling antsy about getting this record. There’s a (silly) stigma around breaking records in the 17-game era because the previous generations had 16 or fewer games to achieve immortality in the record books. Getting the sack record in 16 games would have been an undeniable feat, even though getting it in 17 games is just as undeniable because that’s the current landscape of the league. Garrett’s fervor to try and get this sack was palpable because, man, did he take the worst strategy to try and get there.
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As the game went along, Garrett’s pre-snap alignment from the quarterback got farther and farther away from where the ball was actually placed. He was trying to take the widest angles possible to meet Rodgers at the apex of his drop, but he made it too hard for himself.
Steelers running back Kenneth Gainwell was the main chip player on Garrett, often being his first point of contact before the offensive tackle was able to get into range to block Garrett. As the game went along, Gainwell kept pushing further away from the ball until Garrett was legitimately lined up in the slot on some plays — effectively making it impossible for him to sack Rodgers in the ridiculously short amount of time before Rodgers threw the ball. He got one impressive pressure in the fourth quarter coming from a hyper-wide alignment, but ultimately he was not a factor as the game went on.
“We didn’t do anything against Myles that we don’t normally do against Myles,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “… We didn’t take a different approach because of the gravity of the record. It’s just standard business when you’re playing these guys and him.”
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It seemed like Garrett ended up gassed from his long runways he was trying to take to get to Rodgers, making this the worst game of cat-and-mouse that maybe has ever been displayed between two undeniably great players. Rodgers was getting the ball out so fast it hurt the Steelers’ offense, and Garrett was lined up so wide that it hurt the Browns’ defense on the final drive of the game where Cleveland nearly gave up a game-tying touchdown after allowing just two field goals for the first 59 minutes of the game.
In fact, this probably should have been a blowout win for the Browns. Instead …
The Browns gained another data point showing they need to take another swing at QB
To start off, this looked like it could’ve been The Game for Shedeur Sanders. The complete performance to make a real claim for the starting job in 2026. For the first two drives of the game, he was decisive and made nice throws over the middle of the field in rhythm. The touchdown he threw to Harold Fannin Jr. (on what may have been Fannin’s final play on an all-time rookie season for a tight end) was a poor throw that was hindered by Sanders being hit on the play, but things really spiraled after that point.
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The Browns gained just six first downs and averaged 15 yards per drive over the final three quarters of the game. Despite going 17-of-23 and completing 73% of his passes for the day, he was not any threat to the Steelers and could have thrown another interception that was dropped by a linebacker. He held the ball for too long again, threw short dumpoffs on critical downs that had no chance to convert without a Herculean effort and overestimated his own level of athleticism, creating unnecessary pressure for himself.
“I’m not sure, honestly,” Sanders said when asked what went wrong after the hot start. “They got good players, they got good coaches too. … I haven’t watched the film to be able to know exactly.”
Perhaps Sanders can be a fine backup for the Browns throughout the duration of his rookie contract, but that’s all he is — a backup. His efficiency numbers are about equal with the much-maligned Dillon Gabriel.
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He has not been nearly good enough to waltz into next season as the starter and it’s clear as day the Browns will need to make another investment at QB as soon as they can in the offseason. This win might have knocked them out of quarterback territory in the draft, but it doesn’t make Sanders any safer. He hasn’t been good enough. Ultimately, it appears the NFL’s evaluation of him was correct because he looks like any other Day 3 rookie quarterback except he happens to have a famous father. That’s not actually a real reason to continue on with this.
He should get the final week of the season to start and make his claim to being on the roster next season, but unless the Browns are fine with throwing away yet another season, the chances of Sanders actually being the 2026 starter are dissipating by the week. He had a great chance to put together his first complete performance of the season, but still was unable to. Six starts for a rookie fifth-round pick is more than what most guys get!
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At least he wasn’t as noticeably bad as Rodgers, who will face judgement from the great spirits of competition. The Browns can take that home — which they should. Quarterback need be damned, beating a hated rival is always worth it.
