The Pittsburgh Steelers staged a spirited, second-half rally which briefly gave the impression they were heading for another narrow victory in Cleveland on Thursday night. But after Donte Jackson intercepted a wobbly Jameis Winston pass — with 4:28 remaining in the game and the Steelers leading 19-18 — the situation quickly got out of hand.

Needing to move the chains and run out the clock, the Steelers instead went 3-and-out — strangely calling a deep pass from Justin Fields intended for George Pickens on 3rd-and-4 instead of calling something offering a better chance to move the sticks. This incompletion forced the Steelers to punt. Corliss Waitman, who’s been very reliable so far this season, shanked a kick netting only 15 yards and setting the Browns up at the Steelers 45-yard line with 3:28 remaining in the game. The Browns promptly drove down the field and scored the game-winning TD, leaving only about a minute on the clock. At that point, the game was essentially over because not many fans envisioned that the Steelers offense we had been watching would stage a game-winning TD drive, especially given the slippery, whiteout conditions which dominated the second half.

It’s difficult to draw any significant conclusions about what might lie ahead for the Steelers based on this defeat. In the first half and before the heavy snow began falling, the Steelers offense looked equally ineffective to the futility we witnessed last weekend against Baltimore. Despite moving the ball reasonably well early in the game, the offense was able to muster only 3 points in the first half on a 48-yard Boswell FG.

The second half was quite atypical due to the terrible weather conditions. It seemed obvious that the slippery conditions gave advantages to receivers. This enabled the Browns to sustain the TD drives which ultimately added up to Cleveland’s 24-19 victory. It’s difficult to point fingers at any particular players because we’ll never know what the outcome might have been under better weather conditions. The second half looked more like a free-for-all in the snow with the victory equally likely to go to either team. For the most part, this was a poorly played game with critical mistakes by both teams. It’s the kind of game probably best dismissed by players, coaches and fans. It doesn’t alter the fact that, at 8-3, the Steelers have a strong prospect for the playoffs, while the Browns likely will continue to languish at the bottom of the AFC North.

Foul weather during the entire second half tends to skew some of the game stats, while only a few stats were revealing. For example, the Browns were a terrible 1-10 on third-down conversions. Nevertheless, they converted all four of their fourth-down attempts — while the Steelers were only 1-3 on fourth-down attempts. Likewise, the Steelers converted only one Red Zone attempt compared to three Red Zone conversions for Cleveland. Nearly identical to last weekend’s win over the Ravens, the Steelers dominated possession time by a substantial margin (35:02/24:58) but, in this case, the extra possession time didn’t help to secure a win.

Overall, the loss in Cleveland doesn’t add much useful information about the path ahead beyond what we knew after the Steelers defeated the Ravens. Except for the sporadic, chunk plays, the Steelers offense remains largely clunky and inconsistent. But mainly due to their strong defense and talented placekicker, the Steelers haven’t been dominated by any opponent on their schedule this season.

The key question now is how the Steelers will fare in the weeks ahead against teams that have potent offenses. Will their defensive “dam” which has kept them in every game so far continue to hold up — or are we approaching the point where the defense no longer will be able to compensate for the lackluster, offensive production?

Thursday’s snowstorm matchup doesn’t offer the kind of clues that would help answer these questions. But when the Steelers square off against the hungry Bengals at Acrisure next weekend — hopefully under better weather conditions — Steelers Nation will begin to discover whether the Black-and-gold truly have the mettle to advance this season in the playoffs. Despite Cincinnati’s mediocre record, Joe Burrow is a far better QB than Jameis Winston, and it seems unlikely that any team is going to beat Cincinnati strictly with FGs.