Browns Edge Steelers on Late Field Goal

Andre Szmyt’s 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left lifted the Cleveland Browns past the Pittsburgh Steelers 27⁠–⁠24 on Thursday Night Football, 1 October, at Huntington Bank Field in Cleveland (ESPN; Cleveland Browns). Cleveland improved to 3⁠–⁠1 and took sole lead of the AFC North — the NFL division of Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh — for the first time since 9 November 2014; it is the Browns’ first 3⁠–⁠1 start since 2021 (ESPN). Deshaun Watson directed the final drive after Pittsburgh had tied the game on Aaron Rodgers’s 3-yard touchdown pass to Pat Freiermuth and a Rodgers sneak for two points with 1:42 left (ESPN; Cleveland Browns scoring summary). Cleveland scored three second-quarter touchdowns — Jaleel McLaughlin’s 28-yard run, Quinshon Judkins’s 2-yard run, and Harold Fannin Jr.’s 2-yard catch — then withstood a Steelers fourth-quarter surge; Grant Delpit intercepted Rodgers’s last heave (Cleveland Browns; ESPN). Cleveland has now won five straight home games against Pittsburgh (ESPN).

A field goal is a place kick through the uprights worth three points; a touchdown is worth six, usually followed by a kick or a two-point try. A two-point conversion is a play from the 2-yard line (or equivalent) after a touchdown instead of the ordinary extra-point kick. An interception is a pass caught by the defense; Thursday Night Football is the NFL’s midweek national broadcast window (ESPN; Cleveland Browns).

ESPN and the Browns’ scoring summary agree on the board. Pittsburgh struck first when Roman Wilson caught a 12-yard touchdown pass for 7⁠–⁠0 late in the first quarter after a 17-play opening drive. Cleveland answered with three straight second-quarter touchdowns: after Denzel Ward intercepted Rodgers, McLaughlin’s 28-yard run tied it; Judkins punched in from 2 yards following a 60-yard Denzel Boston catch; Fannin capped an 11-play, 62-yard march with his 2-yard reception for 21⁠–⁠7. Chris Boswell’s 31-yard kick made it 21⁠–⁠10 at the half (Cleveland Browns; ESPN).

The Browns’ offense stalled after halftime. Watson lost a fumble stripped by T.J. Watt in the third and threw a tipped interception early in the fourth that Pittsburgh converted into Darnell Washington’s 21-yard touchdown catch; a failed two-point try left the score 21⁠–⁠16. Szmyt’s 44-yard field goal pushed Cleveland back to 24⁠–⁠16 before Rodgers engineered the tying drive. A defensive pass interference call set the ball at the 3 with 1:46 left; Freiermuth’s catch and Rodgers’s 1-yard sneak for two — after Jared Verse was flagged for being offside — knotted it at 24⁠–⁠24 with 1:42 remaining (ESPN; Cleveland Browns).

Watson then completed four straight passes on a seven-play, 36-yard push into Szmyt’s range. Szmyt drilled the 56-yarder with 10 seconds left; Delpit’s interception of Rodgers’s desperation heave finished it (ESPN; Cleveland Browns). Watson finished 24 of 33 for 268 yards with one touchdown and one interception, plus 22 rushing yards on seven carries; it was his third straight game-winning drive, joining Brian Sipe as the only Browns quarterbacks since the 1970 merger to lead winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime of three consecutive games (ESPN). Cleveland’s defense sacked Rodgers five times and intercepted him twice; the Browns ran for 112 yards after a combined 131 in the season’s first two games (ESPN).

Cleveland’s 21 second-quarter points were its most in any quarter since the 2020 wild-card round, also against Pittsburgh. The win is Cleveland’s third straight after a Week 1 blowout loss at Jacksonville and its first sole AFC North lead in nearly 12 years (ESPN). Next up for the Browns is 11 October at the New York Jets; the Steelers, now 2⁠–⁠2, host Indianapolis the same day (ESPN; Cleveland Browns).