Takeaways From SUPER Wildcard Weekend
The last game of super wildcard weekend was shaping up to be a rough one for Cleveland.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski, Pro Bowl Guard Joel Bitonio and top cornerback Denzel Ward were all out of Sunday’s game due to testing positive for COVID-19. Plus, the Browns weren’t able to practice at all leading up to the game due to Covid protocols. This also affected the Browns in a way NBC announcer Chris Collinsworth mentioned in the broadcast.
Because of Cleveland’s Covid outbreak, they had to bring in new players, particularly offensive linemen, over zoom calls. Sunday was the first time these new players met their new coaches and teammates in person. In fact, Baker Mayfield mentioned in a post game interview that Sunday was the first time he had meet these new teamates. That’s crazy!
That’s not even the craziest thing from the Browns win. It’s how they won that’s so mind-boggling.
Cleveland put up 48 points, almost a 50 burger, in Pittsburgh en route to a 48-37 victory.
Even though the Steelers put up 37 points, this game was never close. After the first quarter the Browns were up 28-0. Yeah, that’s right: 28-0!
Cleveland now heads to Kansas City to face the top seeded Chiefs. Everyone and their mother is picking Kansas City to blow past the Browns in the Divisional round. No way, after a 15-1 season, Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid lose to the Cleveland Browns, right? Well, if Baker Mayfield continues to play clean football, and the running game of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt do what they do, then the Browns got a shot. Also, never underestimate the factor of a revenge game.
Kareem Hunt is returning to Kansas City for the first time since being released a couple years ago. He might be in store for a monster game against his former squad.
As for the Steelers, it will be interesting to see how they approach the offseason. They have a ton of upcoming free agents on their roster, including star receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger isn’t getting any younger. At 38 year olds, Big Ben could very well decide to finally hang up the cleats and retire.
More questions remain than answers for Pittsburgh, but one thing is for sure: they need to make some moves in order to take the next step into Super Bowl Contention.