The Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 10-3 with a Thursday Night Football victory over the Cleveland Browns. The Steelers will now have an extra long break before a Week 15 game on Monday Night Football. And it's a long week that couldn't come at a better time, after both Ben Roethlisberger and Maurkice Pouncey sustained significant ankle injuries against Cleveland. Roethlisberger took a nasty high-low hit from two Browns that resulted in the quarterback's body rolling up over his left leg. He could barely walk off the field in the second quarter but he returned to start the second half and lead Pittsburgh to the 14-3 win.
The game was certainly too close for comfort until the final three and a half minutes, when an Antonio Brown touchdown extended the Steelers lead to 14-3. The Browns drove all the way to the Pittsburgh six yard line and were threatening to take a 10-7 lead, when Colt McCoy was flushed out of the pocket and called for intentional grounding. On the subsequent play, McCoy, who was likely still woozy from a crushing helmet-to-helmet hit by James Harrison, threw a ball up for grabs to the corner of the end zone. William Gay won the jump ball over Mohamed Massaquoi to end Cleveland's scoring threat.
With the ball at the 20, Roethlisberger recognized single coverage on the outside against Antonio Brown. Big Ben quickly hit Brown who was immediately off to the races for a 79-yard score. Brown flew by Cleveland safety Mike Adams to take it all the way down the sideline for the score, icing the game.
Pittsburgh will look to get healthy with a long week off before their Monday night matchup with San Francisco.
For more news, discussion, and analysis on the Steelers, visit SB Nation's Steelers blog Behind The Steel Curtain. For more on the Steelers opponent, visit SB Nation Cleveland and SB Nation's Browns blog, Dawgs by Nature.