The Steelers will host the Cleveland Browns on Sunday night at Heinz Field in the wild-card round. It's the first time in Steelers' history that they'll face the same team in consecutive weeks. The Steelers played the Denver Broncos in the regular-season finale in 1978 and would face them again in the divisional round game, but it was two weeks after since the Steelers had a first-round bye.
The Browns beat the Steelers' "B" team by just two points, 24-22, on Sunday to clinch their first playoff berth since 2002. With only the No. 1 seed getting a bye week under the new playoff format, the game was meaningless for the Steelers and they rested several key starters (Ben Roethlisberger, Maurkice Pouncey, T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward).
The Steelers' most complete game of the season came against the Browns in Week 6, blowing out Cleveland, 38-7.
The Steelers open the week as 4-point favorites against the Browns and the over/under is 46.5 points, according to Oddsshark.com.
The Browns are 1-4 against the spread in their last five games against the Steelers and are 3-13-1 straight up in their last 17 games against Pittsburgh, per Oddsshark.com. The Browns are 3-8 against the spread in their last 11 games.
The last playoff game the Browns played in was against the Steelers at Heinz Field in the 2002 wild-card game, in which the Steelers came back from a 17-point deficit in the second half to win, 36-33. The Steelers are 2-0 against the Browns in the playoffs with their other win coming in 1994 in the divisional round. The Browns' last two playoff appearances were both losses to the Steelers and they haven't won at Heinz Field since 2003.
The Steelers are 8-7 in the playoffs under Mike Tomlin and 5-3 at home. Ben Roethlisberger is 13-8 in the playoffs and 6-4 at Heinz Field.
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