The Cleveland Browns lead the AFC North. Read that again, because it has not been true in a while and it is true because of a 56-yard field goal with 10 seconds left.
Cleveland beat Pittsburgh 27-24 on Thursday night. Andre Szmyt hit the kick. The Browns are 3-1. The Steelers are 2-2.
Aaron Rodgers Did Everything Except Win
Rodgers threw for 299 yards and three touchdowns. He also threw two interceptions and was sacked five times. He tied the game late, which is the sort of thing that normally gets a quarterback credit rather than a loss.
Both picks mattered. Denzel Ward took one in the second quarter and Grant Delpit took the other at the end to seal it. Pittsburgh’s offensive line gave up five sacks against a Cleveland front that has been the best thing about this team all year.
Deshaun Watson Keeps Doing This
Watson went 24-of-33 for 268 yards and a touchdown, and he ran the winning drive. That is now three straight games with a fourth-quarter game-winning drive, which makes him the second Browns quarterback since Brian Sipe in 1979 to pull that off.
Nobody expected this stretch, and the numbers are not spectacular in isolation. A 73 percent completion rate and 268 yards is a clean, unremarkable afternoon. What is remarkable is the clock situation in which he keeps producing it. Watson has been efficient when the game is live and the margin is one score, which is the only context where quarterback play actually decides anything.
The Kicker Deserves the Headline
Szmyt’s 56-yarder is the kind of kick that gets described as routine by people who have never stood over one. Ten seconds on the clock, division lead in the balance, outdoors in October. He made it look ordinary.
What This Means for Both Teams
Cleveland at 3-1 with a defense that generates turnovers and a quarterback who is not losing games is a real football team. The Browns have spent years being an interesting collection of parts. This version wins the ugly ones.
Pittsburgh at 2-2 has a different problem. Rodgers is producing yards and touchdowns, and the Steelers are still splitting games because the protection breaks down and the turnovers come in bunches. Five sacks and two interceptions is a losing formula no matter how many passing yards sit next to it.
The Division Is Now Open
Four weeks in, the AFC North belongs to Cleveland on the strength of a one-point margin in a Thursday night game. That is a flimsy foundation and it still counts.
The Browns get credit for something they have rarely earned: they were the better team in the fourth quarter against a rival that has owned them for most of the last decade. One game does not settle a division. It does tell you which of these two teams currently trusts its quarterback in the final two minutes.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.