![\"benroethlisberger\"](\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2012\/12\/benroethlisberger1.jpg\")
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The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers will close out their disappointing seasons playing against each other in Week 17. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm EST from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA. CBS will carry the game.<\/p>\n
Cleveland will be starting Thad Lewis in his first NFL start. Worst for the Browns is the absence of Trent Richardson who will be spelled by Montario Hardesty.<\/p>\n
The Steelers saw their hopes for a playoff birth end last week with a loss to Cincinnati. They have beaten the Browns at home in the last eight contests.<\/p>\n
What is the spread in the Browns and Steelers game?<\/strong> There is no line currently for this game, partially due to the questions about who would quarterback for the Browns.<\/p>\n “He’s been preparing himself to play all year,” Shurmur said of Lewis, who last started a game in 2009 as a senior at Duke. “What we expect is he goes out and plays winning football.”<\/p>\n Even a win may not be enough to save Shumer’s job as the Browns head coach. Owner Jimmy Haslam and incoming CEO Joe Banner have promised to revamp the Browns staff.<\/p>\n Pittsburgh is 3-5 in games decided by 3 points or less. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has thrown game altering interceptions in the Steelers last two defeats.<\/p>\n The Browns got a surprisingly win against the Steelers in their first matchup winning by a score of 20-14. In that game the Browns forced eight turnovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers will close out their disappointing seasons playing against each other in Week 17. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 pm EST from Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA. CBS will carry the game. Cleveland will be starting Thad Lewis in his first NFL start. Worst for the Browns is the absence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4],"class_list":{"0":"post-2126","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2126"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n <\/th>\n \n CLE<\/div>\n<\/th>\n\n PIT<\/div>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n\n\n W-L<\/td>\n 5-10<\/td>\n 7-8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Avg Points<\/td>\n 19.5<\/td>\n 20.8<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Avg Points Allowed<\/td>\n 22.9<\/td>\n 20.3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Home Record<\/td>\n 4-4<\/td>\n 4-3<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Road Record<\/td>\n 1-6<\/td>\n 3-5<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n