Snow globe in a nonsensical Browns victory

CLEVELAND — Can you take me higher? Clevelanders far and wide were shouting that on Thursday night, as lake effect snow belted down on Northeast Ohio and the Browns played spoiler in their 24-19 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was a performance that no one could have predicted. After all, these were two teams on opposite trajectories coming into Thursday's Week 12 matchup. The Steelers had won their last five, and sat atop the division at 8-2. The Browns were coming off an embarrassing 35-14 loss to the Saints last week at 2-8. But in the AFC North division, anything can happen. That included a first-half appearance by 1990s rock band Creed, with their song "Higher" blaring over the stadium speakers. The group has a concert at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse down the road on Friday. But that was only the start of the madness. While the Steelers were rolling coming into Cleveland, they couldn't get into the end zone in the first half. Their first drive ended with a missed field goal. The second with a turnover on downs. While they came up with a field goal by Chris Boswell early in the second quarter, there was also a strip sack by Myles Garrett, and another sack by the Browns star that ended the half. Garrett had three sacks in the first half, showing fire after calling out Pittsburgh edge rusher T.J. Watt for disrespecting Garrett's NFL Defensive Player of the Year win back in February. Garrett delivered after delivering some harsh words (including saying he'd like an apology from Watt) ahead of the Browns' lone practice of the week. And then, after all that, with the Browns up 10-3 at the break, in came the snow. The flakes quickly accumulated. Whether you were at Huntington Bank Field or watching the broadcast, it was practically whiteout conditions and hard to see what was actually going on on the field. By about midway through the third quarter, the Brownie logo at midfield was no longer visible under a blanket of snow, and the grounds crew worked with shovels to get the snow off the yard lines with breaks in the game action. Both offenses struggled in conditions that can only be described as AFC North football weather, but the Steelers did manage to get one more field goal out of Boswell before the fourth to pull within 10-6. The Browns seemed to be pulling away early in the fourth, as Jameis Winston somersaulted into the end zone and then found David Njoku for a 2-point conversion to take an 18-6 lead with 12:16 left to play. On the TD run, however, Winston broke his helmet. The battery contraption that allowed for communication was hanging out after his dive into the turf. It still remaining attached at least, according to the broadcast, so he never lost communication. But Pittsburgh finally responded with a 3-yard TD run by Jaylen Warren. The following Browns drive, the Steelers came up with a strip sack courtesy of Nick Herbig, got the ball back on the Cleveland 27, and needed only three plays to score again. Russell Wilson found Calvin Austin III for a 23-yard touchdown that gave the Steelers a 19-18 lead with 6:15 left to play. The Steelers ended the next Cleveland drive with Donte Jackson picking off Winston, but then it was four-and-out to set up the final Cleveland scoring drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown run by Nick Chubb. Before the score, Cleveland had to bail itself out of fourth-and-3 and third-and-6. Winston managed to find Jerry Jeudy for completions on both plays. The Browns, leading 24-19, came up with the last defensive stop they needed, with Denzel Ward and Grant Delpit batting down a Wilson Hail Mary attempt as time expired. From start to finish, just about none of it made sense. And in a season that's been filled with low points, you couldn't have taken the Browns or their fans any higher on Thursday night.