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Follow-up · Browns 27, Steelers 24

Mason Graham was gone in the first quarter. The Browns sacked Rodgers five times anyway.

We said Graham would get at least half a sack against Aaron Rodgers. He hurt his knee in the first quarter and never came back. The call misses, and our headline was wrong in a different way: Cleveland's pass rush did not depend on him.

· 2 min read

By XOCP · Written with AI assistance · Edited by Joe Ybarra

Browns 27, Steelers 24

Grading the preview: Half a sack as a rookie. Four in three games now. Mason Graham is the Browns' pass rush.

The calls, graded

  1. MissMason Graham records at least half a sack.0 sacks. Graham hurt his left knee in the first quarter and did not return; the box score has no defensive stats for him.
Mason Graham in a Michigan uniform, No. 55, celebrating a play.
Mason Graham at Michigan in 2023, two years before Cleveland drafted him. Photo: Maize & Blue Nation · CC BY 2.0, resized

The result

Cleveland beat Pittsburgh 27-24 on a 56-yard Andre Szmyt field goal with 10 seconds left. The Browns are 3-1.

Graham hurt his left knee in the first quarter and did not return, according to the AP recap. He has no tackles, hits or sacks in the box score.

Why it is a miss, not a push

The call was that Graham records at least half a sack, graded on the official box score. He recorded none. An injury explains the zero but does not change it. If we excused every call that an injury got in the way of, the record would only ever count the hits.

Where the preview was wrong

The preview's headline said Graham is the Browns' pass rush, and it noted that nobody else on the roster had more than one sack. Without him for most of the night, five different Browns sacked Rodgers once each: Maliek Collins, Adin Huntington, Isaiah McGuire, Sam Williams and Mike Hall Jr. Cleveland finished with 5 sacks and 10 quarterback hits.

“We had some protection challenges. It was a five-man pressure, man-to-man game. They established that right from the beginning,” Steelers coach Mike McCarthy said. That is a scheme beating the protection, not one tackle. We made the story about one player, and the game was about the whole front.

The Browns' stadium in Cleveland during a game against the Steelers.
Cleveland's lakefront stadium during a Browns-Steelers game in 2014. Photo: Erik Drost (resized) · CC BY 2.0, resized

What's next

ESPN's injury list had Graham as questionable on Friday. The Browns play the Jets on October 11. We have not seen a team statement on how long he will be out.

Sources

  1. ESPN — Steelers vs. Browns box score, October 1, 2026
  2. AP recap via ESPN — Watson leads another game-winning drive, Browns beat Steelers 27-24
  3. ESPN game summary and injury list, Steelers at Browns
  4. Our preview: Half a sack as a rookie. Four in three games now. Mason Graham is the Browns' pass rush.

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