Tim Benz: It's not 'How do the Steelers keep losing in Cleveland?' It's 'Why haven't they been able to fix the problem?'

When it comes to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ recent failures in Cleveland, the question shouldn’t be, “How does this keep happening?”

The question should be, “Why do the Steelers constantly let this happen?”

Because the “how” part is clear. There has been an obvious formula that the Browns have followed to prevent the Steelers from winning very often over the past six years at Huntington Bank Stadium. The Browns hold a 4-1-1 record in home games against the Black and Gold since the start of the 2018 season.

Here’s how they tend to do it:

Contain the Steelers’ run game

Jaylen Warren popped a 74-yard touchdown run last year in Cleveland during a 13-10 loss for the Steelers.

Jaylen Warren goes 74 yards!

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Aside from that run, the Steelers were at a pedestrian 3.9 yards per carry on 25 attempts.

In four games before that, the Steelers have been held to an average of 90.5 yards per game on the ground. That’s roughly equivalent to what the Steelers are allowing this year (90.8) as the fourth-best run defense in the NFL.

This year, the Browns rush defense hasn’t been great. It’s 24th in the league at 131.7 yards per game. The Steelers need to exploit that.

Harass the passer

In the six games in Cleveland since the start of 2018, the Browns have recorded 15 sacks of Steelers quarterbacks. That’s not an overwhelming amount. But the pressure, along with the sacks throughout those games, has often been more significant.

Five of those sacks and 11 quarterback hits belong to Myles Garrett. While Steelers tackle Dan Moore Jr. is often credited for raising his game when he faces Garrett, containing the reigning Defensive Player of the Year will still need to be a joint effort.

“I don’t know that we view that as a one-on-one matchup. It’s no slight against Dan Moore. It’s just the talent level of Myles Garrett,” Tomlin said Monday. “Certainly, Dan is going to have his opportunities to be matched up against Myles. But I doubt that it’s going to be in one-on-one circumstances, particularly in one-dimensional passing moments.”

Possess the ball

Generally, the Browns have done a good job at home winning leverage downs and owning the time of possession against the Steelers.

In four of the six games during this recent stretch of frustration in Cleveland for the Steelers, the Browns have won the possession-time battle. And in the 2018 season-opening tie, the Steelers only won in that category by about a minute of possession time.

Also, the Browns’ defense has been solid when it comes to getting the Steelers’ offense off the field. Over the past three years, the Steelers are a combined 8 for 36 on third downs. Back in 2019, the Browns stopped the Steelers nine times in 11 tries on third down.

“They have got a good four-man rush,” coordinator Arthur Smith said Tuesday. “They have a good pressure package. Those are games within games.”

Keep in mind the Steelers are coming off a game where they came up empty on 12 of 16 third-down tries against the Baltimore Ravens (and their rotten pass defense) last week.

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Give it to Chubb

During his chances to play against the Steelers at home, running back Nick Chubb has games with 113, 108 and 92 yards on his resume.

“That game (against the Browns) kind of goes how Chubb goes,” defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said. “If he’s running the ball and he’s really effective against us, we don’t do so well. So he’s a big part of what we’re trying to do in trying to stop them.”

Chubb has been slow to impact Cleveland’s offense since his return from a knee injury against the Steelers at Acrisure Stadium last year. He has just 163 yards on 53 carries over four games this season.

Muck it up

Whenever the Steelers visit, the Browns are good at sucking the Steelers into sloppy, undisciplined penalty-filled affairs.

Over their past nine trips to Cleveland, the Steelers have committed eight or more penalties six times. In seven of those games, the Steelers have been penalized more than Cleveland. They average 7.2 penalties per contest up there.

Fortunately, the officiating crew the Steelers are getting this week is Brad Allen’s. That group has thrown the third-fewest penalties in the NFL.