Browns Win Over Steelers Becomes Unforgettable Moment For Franchise

Inside a snow globe, the the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers provided some incredible football theater that fans of both teams won't soon be forgetting

Nov 21, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Browns safety Rodney McLeod Jr. (12) and defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo (54) celebrate after the Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers at Huntington Bank Field. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

In so many ways snow is the polar opposite of football. It's soft and serene. Beautiful and smooth. It shouldn't work with the rough and rugged, physically grueling and sometimes ugly game that is football.

Perhaps that's why they blend together so well.

On Thursday Night Football, those two forces came together to provide what can only be described by football fans everywhere as football utopia between the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.

What started out as a trickle of snow flurries during the first half, transformed into sizeable and steady snow flakes in the second half. Subsequently, Huntington Bank Field transformed into a snow globe, featuring an all-time football game between two division rivals, and an improbable victor when the snow finally dissipated to the base of the orb.

In a largely forgettable Browns season, a 24-19 win over the Steelers is anything but. Getting there was far from easy though.

Both offenses got off to slow starts as the first quarter ended with the two AFC North rivals combining for just 105 yards of total offense. A Chris Boswell missed field goal from 58 yards kept the two teams scoreless after one.

About four minutes into the second quarter though, Boswell nailed a 48-yarder to get the Steelers on the board first. The snow was barely a factor at that point.

The Browns answered with a 12-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to answer, with Nick Chubb punching it in to send the stadium into a frenzy. After a Myles Garrett strip sack on the ensuing drive, they added a field goal to ultimately take a 10-3 lead into the half.

As the snowfall turned up a notch, so did the craziness on the field. A dramatic, running touchdown that sent Jameis Winston helicoptering into the end zone felt like the quarterback's indoctrination into Cleveland Browns lore.

Winston nearly gave the game away though, fumbling the ball on a strip sack with about eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter after the Steelers had cut Cleveland lead to just six. The fumble fueled a second Pittsburgh touchdown and gave it a 19-18 lead with about six minutes to play.

A Winston interception on the very next series threatened to give the game away entirely. But the magic of the winter wonderland made this ending anything but predictable.

In the days leading up to the game, Winston said shared that he found out pretty quickly upon arriving in Cleveland that you're not a Brown until you beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. Winston earned his official Browns membership card in dramatic fashion as he marched the offense through the whiteout conditions on a 44-yard, nine play dive, featuring a pivotal fourth-down throw to Jerry Jeudy.

Fittingly, in his first game against the Steelers since suffering that gruesome knee injury against them in Week 2 of last season, Chubb did the honors of finishing the drive with a touchdown run. His second score game the Browns a lead they'd hold, after a last-second prayer from the Steelers went unanswered in the final minutes. As Russell Wilson's Hail Mary attempt hit the snow-covered turf a collective realization of how epic the game was swept across the stadium.

Steelers wideout George Pickens said afterward that he doesn't think the Browns are a very good football team, and that the conditions "saved them." He's probably right on both fronts. But that's the beauty of football. Something like the weather can throw a wrench into even the based laid game plans, and muck things up just enough to jostle a team that loses the turnover battle by two, converts just one third down and is outgained in total yards, and spit them out as the victors.

For any casual fan watching at home, the setting was cool enough. For Browns fans, in prime time, as the only show in football, with their most hated rival in town, it made for an unforgettable experience. Thursday night delivered one of the most memorable moments in franchise history, draped in a stunningly picturesque scene. It's enough to make ya wonder if Jimmy and Dee Haslam really should reconsider the Brook Park Dome project.

Browns fans will be talking about that win long after the current Huntington Bank Field is dismantled and fans are wearing polo shirts to games and drinking Mai Tais at November and December games. In terms of an atmosphere, that setting is truly the last of a dying breed in this town.

And even in the midst of a 3-8 season, where the Browns have fallen woefully short of their lofty postseason aspirations, it was nice – at least for one week – to push all the negative energy surrounding this team to the back-burner, and just enjoy a truly a once in a lifetime night in downtown Cleveland.