NFL Players shocked on Twitter as Browns take huge first half lead on Steelers in AFC Super Wild-Card game

The Pittsburgh Steelers seemed to have quite a bit of confidence heading into Sunday’s Super Wild-Card Weekend matchup, and it’s hard to blame them. Pittsburgh was the last unbeaten team in the NFL this season, they’ve been far more successful than the Cleveland Browns (their opponent) in recent years, and the Browns were missing several key pieces — including their head coach — due to COVID-19 on Sunday.

But perhaps the Steelers were too confident because Pittsburgh was a total mess to start the game and the Browns wasted absolutely no time in punching them in the mouth. After a botched snap resulted in a Cleveland defensive touchdown on the first drive, Ben Roethlisberger then turned the ball over repeatedly until the Browns held an early 28-0 lead, and ultimately took a 35-10 halftime lead into the locker room. 

With Cleveland being one of the league’s biggest laughing stocks for so long, a lot of people couldn’t believe the dominance that they showed in the first half. Many players past and present were riled up through the first couple of quarters, with some having trouble processing what they were seeing.

While it was a painful half for every Steelers player and fan, it may have been a particularly tough scene for JuJu Smith-Schuster, who made the mistake of giving Cleveland some bulletin board fodder earlier in the week. JuJu told the media these were the “same old Browns” during Pittsburgh’s week of preparations, and that statement proved to look pretty foolish in hindsight, at leas through the first half.