The ghosts of a 22-year regular-season road losing streak against the Steelers haunt the Cleveland Browns as they head to Pittsburgh for Week 8. But this upstart team has said things are different in Northeast Ohio now. 

This is the ultimate opportunity to prove it. With first place in the division on the line, the end of a torturous streak and a chance to sweep the Steelers in a single season for the first time since the 80s, here are three stats that could decide the game. 

The Browns are getting outscored 58-13 in the first quarter of games this season. It's a staggering point differential for the opening stanza and one that miraculously hasn't burned Cleveland much to this point. It helps that it's outscored opponents 57-46 in the fourth quarter, during the most critical points of the game. 

Still, the Browns are playing with fire, falling behind as often as they do early in games, there's no time like the present, in a pivotal AFC North showdown with Pittsburgh, to buck that trend. 

The Browns enter Sunday tied for the 11th most attempts run out of third-and-long (defined as third downs of seven or more yards) this season with 46. They also have a NFL-worst 15.2% conversion percentage on those attempts.

Conversely, the Steelers have only run 35 plays out of third-and-long situations and have the ninth-best conversion percentage in those situations, doing so at a clip of 28.6%. 

In Week 7, Cleveland had its best week running the football, racking up 183 yards on the ground and the offense in general had its best overall performance of the season. Staying ahead of the sticks was a major reason for that and the Browns would greatly benefit from.

Since the last time these two teams played, the Steelers have leaned into 12 personnel as their identity on offense. That's mostly due to excessive injuries at the wide receiver position. 

Still, 12 personnel has been fairly effective for Pittsburgh and the Browns, conversely, have struggled against those looks through the first seven weeks. According to SumerSports, Cleveland has seen 12 personnel from its opponents over 26% of the time this season and they've posted an EPA against those looks of -10.32. That figure is the ninth-worst in the NFL and its EPA against the run in those looks is -.16. 

The Browns are going to have to limit the effectiveness of 12 personnel against their defense if they're going to win in Pittsburgh.