The Week 3 edition of “Thursday Night Football” features an old-school AFC North rivalry, as the Cleveland Browns play host to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both of these teams are coming off dispiriting losses a week ago, after they had picked up victories in the final moments of the game in Week 1.
The Browns blew a double-digit lead in the last two minutes of their game against the Jets, while the Steelers barely moved the ball all day against the Patriots. Each of these teams is looking to get back in the win column and leap, at least, momentarily, into first place in the division, and hopefully establish some sort of foundation on which to make a run to the playoffs.
Which of them will get back to their winning ways? We’ll find out soon enough. Before we break down the matchup, here’s how you can watch this evening’s contest.
How to watch
Date: Thursday, Sept. 22 | Time: 8:20 p.m. ET
Location: FirstEnergy Stadium (Cleveland)
Stream: Amazon Prime Video
Follow: CBS Sports App
Odds: Browns -4.5, O/U 38.5
When the Steelers have the ball
Pittsburgh’s offense is in major trouble. Through two games, the Steelers have managed just 510 yards, 30th in the NFL. On a per-play basis, they actually rank 31st. They’re 26th in points per drive, 29th in Tru Media’s EPA per play, and 22nd in Football Outsiders’ offensive DVOA.
Most of the issues begin along the offensive line, where things are pretty dire. They simply cannot generate any push whatsoever in the run game. They have one of the league’s highest first-down run rates (50 percent), and on those plays have averaged just 2.9 yards per rush. Despite facing eight-man boxes on only 18 percent of runs, the Steelers have averaged just 1.30 yards before contact per attempt. On plays where Najee Harris was the ball-carrier (as opposed to Mitchell Trubisky, Jaylen Warren, or Chase Claypool), that figure is even worse — just 0.44 per attempt.
But Harris, who dealt with a Lisfranc injury during training camp and injured his foot again in Week 1, just does not look healthy. Among the 44 players with at least 15 rush attempts this season, he ranks 32nd in avoided tackle rate and 31st in yards after contact per attempt. Last season, he ranked seventh in avoided tackle rate and 21st in yards after contact among the 53 players with 100 carries or more.
The Browns have yielded only 3.77 yards per rush so far this season,…
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