The Pittsburgh Steelers faced the Cleveland Browns in a divisional matchup Thursday night in Week 12. The Steelers have been one of the hottest teams in football since naming Russell Wilson the starting quarterback in Week 7. But the Jameis Winston-led Browns snapped Pittsburgh’s five-game winning streak with a 24-19 victory at home in the driving snow.
Wilson attempted a Hail Mary on the final play of the game, sending all the Steelers’ receivers to the end zone. During the play, Browns’ cornerback Greg Newsome II covered George Pickens, ensuring that the Steelers’ top wideout was nowhere near the ball by riding him out the back of the end zone and into the wall in front of the stands, per Awful Announcing on X.
The camera cut away to show the Browns celebrating the upset win and when it cut back, both Pickens and Newsome had their helmets off and Pickens was being restrained by stadium security, via Steelers Depot. Pickens eventually regained his composure and made his way back to the field.
Pickens finished third on the team with four receptions for 48 yards in Week 12. He remains the Steelers' leading receiver with 52 catches for 776 yards and two scores in 11 games.
Emotion often gets the better of Steelers’ WR George Pickens
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However, it’s been an eventful season for the third-year wideout. In Week 10, Pickens made a sensational catch for a touchdown against the Commanders. But in that same game, he made a strange transition to combat sports. In the third quarter, he body slammed Mike Sainristil after a Jeremy Chinn interception. Later in the game, he hit Washington’s Benjamin St-Juste with a leaping stiff arm/face mask. Pickens was fined $16,883 by the league for the bizarre move.
It was the third time this season that the NFL has fined Pickens. In Week 5 against the Dallas Cowboys, the young receiver was handed a $10,231 fine for writing “Open f***ing always” on his eye black. In the same game he drew another $10K fine for yanking cornerback Jourdan Lewis’ face mask. Pickens has more fines than touchdown receptions so far this season.
With the loss, the Steelers fell to 8-3 on the season. The Browns improved to 3-8 but the team is now .500 since losing Deshaun Watson to a season-ending Achilles injury. Winston is 2-2 as the Browns' starting quarterback and he’s 2-0 in divisional matchups with wins over the Baltimore Ravens and the Steelers.
