CLEVELAND — There’s nothing Super about the Steelers anymore.
The defending NFL champions lost their fifth straight game and had their playoff hopes thrown for a loss by the lowly Browns, who ended a 12-game skid against their bitter rival by beating the Steelers 13-6 on Thursday night in subzero wind chills.
Ben Roethlisberger was sacked eight times and lost for the first time in 11 career games against the Browns (2-11), who extended Pittsburgh’s longest losing streak in six years and defeated the Steelers (6-7) at home for the first time since 2000.
Pittsburgh is going to need help to make the playoffs, a stunning free fall for a team that hit the season’s halfway point at 6-2.
Unexpected losses to Kansas City, Oakland and Cleveland — three of the NFL’s worst teams with a combined record of 9-28 — have pushed the Steelers to the brink.
“To lose five straight coming off a Super Bowl from last year is embarrassing,” wide receiver Hines Ward said. “There’s nothing fun about losing games, especially five in a row. We’re better than that.”
Chris Jennings, who began the season on Cleveland’s practice squad, scored on a 10-yard run and Phil Dawson kicked two 29-yard field goals for the Browns, who snapped a seven-game losing streak, a 10-game slide at home and beat the Steelers for just the second time in 20 games.
Roethlisberger tried to rally the Steelers, but his fourth-down pass to Santonio Holmes with less than two minutes left was knocked down by linebacker David Bowens.
“It means everything,” Browns do-it-all wide receiver Josh Cribbs said. “There are a lot of Steelers fans around the city, so I hope people go to work and kick those Steelers fans.”
