The Cleveland Browns have had a rough go of it since returning to the NFL in 1999.
And nowhere has been tougher on the guys in orange and brown than a regular-season road trip to face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Fans old enough to remember when the Steelers played in Three Rivers Stadium know all too well the troubles the Browns have faced. Starting in 1970, when the stadium opened, the Browns lost 16 consecutive times they visited the soul-less artificial-turfed home of the Steelers.
There were a few
times when it looked like the Browns would snap the jinx — four-point losses in 1974 and 1977; three-point losses in 1979, 1980, and 1984; a one-point defeat in 1985 – until they finally broke through in 1986.
After that game, Browns fans thought they had finally seen the worst of it, especially as Cleveland ripped off four consecutive road wins against the Steelers.
But fate had other, more wicked plans.
The Browns began a new streak of futility and welcomed a new generation of fans to share in the misery earlier this century, as they enter this Sunday’s game having lost 21 consecutive regular-season road games to the Steelers.
Just like the Three Rivers streak, there have been close games — three-point losses in 2007, 2014, and 2017 – but more times than not, the games have not been close. And in an additional cruel twist, head coaches Romeo Crennel, Pat Shurmur, Rob Chudzinski, and Hue Jackson were fired immediately following a road loss to the Steelers.
Cleveland’s last regular-season win in Pittsburgh came on October 5, 2003 — a game so long ago that current rookies Isaiah Bond, Harold Fannin Jr., Quinshon Judkins, and Dylan Sampson were not even born yet. (Unfortunately, fellow rookie Shedeur Sanders was born in 2002, so we had to use this aside as a way to shoehorn him into the story.)
For those readers who fall into the same category, or for those whose memories are not what they once were, that game saw the Browns roll over the Steelers before a national TV audience by a score of 33-13.
Quarterback Tim Couch threw touchdown passes to André Davis and Kevin Johnson to stake the Browns to a 16-3 lead early in the second quarter. The Steelers pulled within six points after a one-yard touchdown run by Jerome Bettis, but Couch smartly moved the Browns down the field and scored on a nine-yard touchdown run to send the Browns into halftime with a 23-10 lead.
Any hope the Steelers had of a comeback was thwarted in the third quarter when Daylon McCutcheon returned an interception 75 yards for a touchdown and pushed Cleveland’s lead to 30-10.
It was a proper beating; Cleveland’s defense held the Steelers to just 209 yards of offense and one-of-11 on third downs, sacked quarterback Tommy Maddox three times, and forced three turnovers by Maddox.
In what was essentially his last hurrah with the Browns, Couch completed 16 of his first 17 passes and finished the night 20-of-25 for 208 yards and two touchdown passes.
When the Browns take the field on Sunday at Acrisure Stadium, it will have been 22 years and seven days since the last time they walked off that field in the regular season as winners. But as head coach Kevin Stefanski said earlier this week, that is in the past and “what’s in front is what matters.”
Sunday seems like a great time for this new generation of Browns players to start making their own winning memories of visiting Pittsburgh. Because 22 years of losing is long enough, even for a franchise that has known little else over the years.
