Browns’ impressive win over the Steelers may have came at a real cost on Thursday Night Football
Thursday Night Football brought the Cleveland Browns a tough injury that did not look great at all.
The Cleveland Browns are alone at the top of the AFC North for the first time. For the third straight week, the Browns went on a game-winning drive, and this time a 56-yard field goal by Andre Szmyt gave the Browns a 27-24 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Cleveland came into the game against Pittsburgh with second-year defensive tackle Mason Graham leading the defense. Graham had four sacks through his first three games and had quickly become the most disruptive force on Cleveland’s defensive front.
That made the opening drive of the game even tougher to watch. Graham went down with a knee injury and had to be helped off the field, unable to put much weight on the leg. He was taken back to the locker room and did not return.
Browns now await injury outcome for Mason Graham
Losing Graham for any amount of time would be a big loss for the Browns. The Browns got another scare just before halftime when Mike Hall Jr. went down with what looked like could be a tough ankle injury.
Hall is the player who stepped in for Graham as the backup, so the timing couldn’t have been much worse. The good news is that Hall was able to return late in the third quarter, missing about a quarter of gameplay, and recorded a sack in the second half.
Losing two players at the same position in one game would have been a nightmare scenario for the Browns. The Browns had to rely on second-year player Aidin Huntington much more than expected, and he stepped up with a sack. Maliek Collins gave the Browns some positive play with Graham out as well.
Through the first few games, Graham looked like a Pro Bowl type of player for the Browns. His ability to get into the backfield gave the rest of the defense a major boost, and that kind of production isn’t easy to replace. After the game, Graham was seen on crutches leaving the stadium in a knee Brace, according to Cleveland.com’s Mary Kay Cabot.
The Browns will have to see how serious Graham’s knee injury is, and that’s going to be the major question coming out of a very good night for the Browns.
