Browns lose in Heinz Field yet again

By STEVE KING

Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.
The Browns, who had been off to their best start in 26 years and were riding their longest winning streak in 11 seasons, still couldn’t find a way to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday at Heinz Field.

In an early-season showdown for a piece of first place in the AFC North, the Browns lost xx-xx to fall to 4-2 and see their string of consecutive victories end at four games. Pittsburgh, off to its best start since 1978, improved to 5-0.

The loss was the Browns’ 17th straight to the Steelers at Heinz Field. Their only victory there was in 2003, when Tim Couch was their quarterback, Butch Davis was their head coach and some guy by the name of Kevin Stefanski, who, of course, is the current heasd coach, was playing his senior season of football for the University of Pennsylvania Quakers.

So, yeah, it’s been a long,long time — way, way, way too long, in fact.
A win would have proven to the football world that these upstart Browns were for real, that they were legitimate contenders for at least a playoff spot, which they have not had since 2002, and possibly something a whole lot more. It would have put a stamp of approval on the Browns. They would have passed the litmus test.

In short, it would have been one of the greatest victories of this otherwise mostly miserable expansion era or the Browns.

So much to be gained, and the Browns simply couldn’t do it. They couldn’t get the job done.

But alli is not lost. Hardly. At 4-2, their best start since 2001, the Browns are still in the thick of the AFC playoff hunt at this early juncture. A final 9-7 mark might be enough to get them into the postseason as a wild card, and the Browns could do that by going just .500, 5-5, in the remaining 10 games.
That road starts next Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium when the Browns have a rematch with the Cincinnati Bengals, whom they defeated 35-30 a month ago at Cleveland on Thursday Night Football. Then comes a visit to FirstEnergy Stadium by the Las Vegas Raiders on Nov. 1 before the Browns head into their bye week at exactly the halfway point of their regular season.

Yes, yes, yes, but, with a long-awaited victory in Pittsburgh, the outlook in Cleveland this week would be so much better.