The Cleveland Browns put their impressive Thursday Night Football streak on the line against their top rival the Pittsburgh Steelers, who hasn't fared too well on this stage themselves.
There's a lot at stake between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers when they take the field for Thursday Night Football this week.
All four teams in the AFC North currently sit at 2-1, so the winner of this game will, at least temporarily, hold an outright lead in the division for a few days. That adds a little extra juice to a matchup that is always electric enough, considering the heated rivalry that also exists between the two franchises.
Despite how tight these two teams tend to play each other, the Browns and Steelers will collide in primetime, boasting wildly different Thursday Night Football histories.
Cleveland, for starters, has fared extremely well on the TNF, entering this matchup a perfect 7-0 on this stage since 2018. It's a stretch of contests that began on the famous beer fridge night, featuring Baker Mayfield leading a comeback win over the Jets. The series of wins also includes three victories over the Steelers as well.
All three are actually fairly memorable too. A 21-7 win over Pittsburgh in November of 2019 was also the night of the infamous Myles Garrett, Mason Rudolph helmet incident. A 29-17 win in 2022 in September of 2022 featured Jacoby Brissett at quarterback, while Deshaun Watson served an 11-game suspension. Amari Cooper went for over 100 yards receiving and a TD. Nick Chubb did the same on the ground.
And of course, the third win over the Steelers during that stretch came in the unforgettable snow globe game in November of 2024, where Jameis Winston led Cleveland to a thrilling 24-19 win and celebrated with snow angels on the field afterward. That was also the last Thursday Night Football game the Browns played in.
Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is brings an 0-9 losing streak in road, divisional Thursday Night games into Huntington Bank Field this week. The stadium has also been a house of horrors of late for the Steelers losing six of their last seven on the lakefront.
Now, those figures came under former Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin so perhaps Mike McCarthy can reverse Pittsburgh's recent Thursday Night shortcomings. Either way, something ha gotta give between these two rivals when they kick things off in two days.
A win would set either team up nicely to truly emerge as a playoff contender as the season unfolds from here and may end up serving as a pivotal tiebreaker in a division race that tends to be decided over the final few weeks of the regular season.
