Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger played through a painful high ankle sprain in the second half to pass for 280 yards and two touchdowns as the Steelers downed the Cleveland Browns 14-3.
Roethlisberger’s last scoring pass, a 79-yard strike to Antonio Brown with 2 minutes, 52 seconds remaining, helped the Steelers win for the eighth time in their past nine games.
Roethlisberger went to the locker room for X-rays following a gruesome second-quarter sack, but returned to start the second half, passing for 178 yards after the break.
Pittsburgh (10-3) moved a half-game ahead of Baltimore in the race for the AFC North title.
Colt McCoy passed for 209 yards, but also threw two interceptions for the Browns (4-9), who lost for the 15th time in their past 16 meetings with the Steelers.
The Browns had a chance after safety Mike Adams picked off Roethlisberger’s pass and returned it to the Cleveland 44-yard line. McCoy led the Browns deep into Pittsburgh territory, before his pass was picked off in the end zone by William Gay.
The Steelers took over at the 20-yard line. After a running play went nowhere, Roethlisberger found Brown open down the right sideline. The second-year wide receiver spun away from a defender, then beat Cleveland safety Mike Adams to the end zone.
Brown finished with five receptions for 151 yards and a score, though the game will be remembered not for his dazzling catch-and-run, but Roethlisberger’s remarkable play.
Despite a pair of turnovers deep in Cleveland territory, the Steelers were in complete command until the game — if not Pittsburgh’s season — appeared to change midway through the second quarter.
The Steelers were leading 7-3 when Roethlisberger dropped back to past on first down. He moved up in the pocket to avoid pressure when Cleveland’s Scott Paxson corralled Roethlisberger’s left leg, while teammate Brian Schaefering hit the quarterback in the chest and sent him toppling over awkwardly.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
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