Browns: 3 players who need to step up against the Steelers in their rematch
By Chad Porto

The Cleveland Browns have to defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday to advance to the playoffs and these three players need to step up the most.
The Cleveland Browns have to win on Sunday against the Pittsburgh Steelers to make the playoffs. Luckily for them, that’s as simple as it needs to be. There is no other trickery that needs to happen. If the Browns win, they’re in. The Browns will go into the game without Andrew Sendejo, Denzel Ward, Chris Hubbard, and a slew of other players due to either injury or COVID-19.
Luckily the Steelers are sitting a bunch of their best players as well, meaning the field of play should be even. Here are three players (positions) who need to step up on Sunday.
Baker Mayfield
Sports media has gotten so bad in 2020 that the idea of context has been ripped away in favor of “hot-takes”. The reason why hot-takes are the new norm is that anger sells. Sports media love to make fans mad on purpose, but not here at the Factory of Sadness. We believe in truth and context. So when people dogged on Baker Mayfield for the last week after the Jets loss, the one thing that was ignored in every rant or raving was that Mayfield was down five starters on offense, three of whom were announced just a day before the game.
Of course, he got lit up, he had practice squad receivers and the literal worst of the remaining offensive linemen to fill in for him. No time in NFL history has this ever happened before, where an offensive lineman was down three key players (two starters), and the entire receiving corp, save one, was ruled out. Mayfield played admirably despite the situation. No one, not even Nick Chubb could get a spark going. So naturally, things went the way they went.
Yet, now that Cam Heyward and T.J. Watt are now sitting on Sunday, and the odds that others will sit at some point, Mayfield has no excuses even if he’s got Nick Harris blocking for him. The opportunity is now.
Seize it.