Dillon Gabriel Has His ‘Welcome To The Browns’ Moment In Pittsburgh, And It Wasn’T Pretty

Dillon Gabriel's first NFL start in Pittsburgh looked familiar with the last 22 efforts there by Cleveland quarterbacks. (Pittsburgh Steelers)

Dillon Gabriel's first NFL start in Pittsburgh looked familiar with the last 22 efforts there by Cleveland quarterbacks. (Pittsburgh Steelers)

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Dillon Gabriel has his ‘welcome to the Browns’ moment in Pittsburgh, and it wasn’t pretty

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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns and NFL analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland. He has covered the Browns since 1984.

PITTSBURGH

There comes a point in every Browns quarterback’s career when he has to walk the Green Mile at the confluence of the three rivers in Pittsburgh and suffer the consequences of a gruesome game experience against the Steelers.

If he’s lucky, he has a few games under his belt. Then maybe he can minimize the damage to psyche and body. Dillon Gabriel wasn’t that lucky.

The rookie’s second NFL start came at the torture chamber in which the Browns hadn’t won in 21 straight regular-season games, where the Steelers had won 14 of 15 previous games against rookie quarterbacks in the 19 years with Mike Tomlin as coach.

The outcome was predictably grim for Gabriel and the Browns. They extended their losing streak here and Tomlin’s rookie QB record with a 23-9 defeat that further cemented the Browns’ offense as one of the worst in franchise history.

It marked the 11th straight game the Browns failed to score 20 points and dropped their season scoring average to 13.6 points a game. And for the second game in a row, the Browns did not commit an offensive turnover.

Which prompted this observation from coach Kevin Stefanski, the author of the offense and head coach of a team now 1-5 this season and 4-18 over the last two years:

“We’ve got to get it fixed because before you start winning, you’ve got to stop losing.”

The Steelers ran roughshod over Gabriel, burying him for six sacks and hitting him another 16 times.

With Quinshon Judkins never getting untracked (12 rushes for 36 yards) and the Browns playing entirely from behind for the third time in six games, Gabriel was asked to take 58 dropbacks. He completed 29 of 52 passes for 221 yards for a miniscule average of 4.3 yards per pass attempt. As a team, the Browns ran the ball 17 times for 65 yards with a long of 12 yards.

By the time the Steelers cranked out Renegade over the Acrisure Stadium speakers, the Browns had two players out with concussions (right tackle Jack Conklin and receiver Gage Larvadain), and Cam Robinson, their fourth left tackle in five games, had committed three more penalties.

Like Joe Flacco before him, Gabriel was victimized by dropped passes and porous pass protection caused by offensive tackle breakdowns and repeated negative plays. Gabriel was lucky to escape without an interception; the Steelers juggled away potentially as many as six. And their lack of discipline on defense extended several Cleveland drives. One of Gabriel’s passes in the red zone conked receiver Isaiah Bond in the back of the head.

It was clear very early that Gabriel was not going to improve on his solid NFL debut a week ago in London against the Vikings. During the week, Tomlin called Gabriel’s processing speed his “superpower.” The Steelers’ edge rushers and defensive backs were his kryptonite.

“[Our secondary] did a nice job with their pre-snap disguise,” Tomlin said. “They didn’t allow him to digest information prior to getting the ball in his hands. That’s the first component of slowing down the process being.”

The best anyone could say about Gabriel in his first game in Pittsburgh was “he’s a tough kid.”

Gabriel took a beating but claimed he was “solid” physically in his post-mortem, which resembled a eulogy at a funeral. Sounding forever like a coach, Gabriel blamed himself for the sacks and dropped passes.

“There’s things I can do to try to get it out as quickly as possible, just so we’re not in the negative on first and second down,” he said.

“I think here and there, there’s times where I definitely need to be better in creating completions. We’ve got to create chunks, explosives. That’s sometimes just runners, yards after catch, Maybe that’s down the field. But that’s also just doing the easy things at a high level. I think at times we’re not doing that. And that starts with me, but we’ve got to find answers.”

As for the drops by Jerry Jeudy (two), David Njoku (two) and Harold Fannin, Gabriel said, “There’s a lot of ways I can be better to help them and times that we can work though those certain things. In the moments that we were in, it’s a lot more crucial to sustain drives and get catches to keep going. But I don’t want to get it misconstrued. That all starts with me as well.”

Defensively, the Browns barely laid a fingernail on 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, who defused Jim Schwartz’s attack defense with quick throws from a variety of release points, included a couple back-handed shovel passes. Rodgers didn’t break a sweat in completing 21 of 30 passes for 235 yards and TDs to Connor Heyward and DK Metcalf.

Playing frequently with a sixth offensive lineman, Rodgers wasn’t sacked and was hit only three times. Myles Garrett went 0-fer and had two tackles while his Pittsburgh rival, T.J. Watt, was credited with a half-sack, three quarterback hits and two bat-downs of Gabriel passes.

Pressed on what goes through his mind when he sees a defense able to unleash a rush with a two-score lead – something the Browns have never held this year – Garrett said, “Must be nice.”

Now that the six-game opening schedule gauntlet has ended with the Browns buried at 1-5, the heat surely will turn up on Stefanski. And probably Gabriel, too, who return to play the Miami Dolphins in his first starting appearance at home with Shedeur Sanders limbering up now as the backup QB.

For the first time this year, Stefanski was asked about handing over play-calling duties to rookie offensive coordinator Tommy Rees.

“There’s a lot of things we need to do better. Obviously, I’ll look at all things,” he replied, glumly.