Browns vs. Steelers preview: 3 things to know about Cleveland’s Week 12 opponent

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Browns lost in New Orleans to the Saints on Sunday, 35-14. They fell to 2-8 on the season and have lost seven of their last eight games.

However, they will have to turn around quickly for a Thursday night home game vs. the Pittsburgh Steelers at 8:15 p.m.

The Steelers moved into first place in the AFC North at 8-2 thanks to an 18-16 win at home vs. the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday. Chris Boswell kicked six field goals in the win for the Steelers.

This will be the first of two games the two division rivals will play in a span of three weeks, with the Steelers hosting the Browns in Week 14.

Here are three things to know about the Steelers before they meet the Browns for the first time this season.

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The Steelers raised some eyebrows in the offseason when they signed Russell Wilson to be their starting quarterback. Wilson had just come off two rough seasons in Denver, and the Broncos willingly ate $85 million in dead cap over two seasons to move on from him.

So far, Wilson has fit right in with the Steelers. Pittsburgh is 4-0 with Wilson as the starter.

He has completed 60.3% of his passes for 942 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions. However, Sunday's game against the Ravens was the first time this season he has failed to find the end zone.

The Steelers don't need Wilson to be the player he was with the Seahawks. But he has been productive and provided more offense than Pittsburgh got with Justin Fields. Wilson has been the steady hand the Steelers need so far.

Pittsburgh's defense this season has been as stout as in years past. They came into Sunday's game against the Ravens second in the NFL in scoring defense (16.2 points per game).

The Steelers held the high-powered Ravens offense to just 16 points and only allowed Lamar Jackson to score a single touchdown.

They've done it with T.J. Watt being relatively quiet this season. He has just seven sacks in 10 games this season, one of which came vs. Baltimore. Cameron Heyward continues to play well at age 35 with 5.5 sacks.

The Browns have had problems to score all season long, reaching 20 points in a game just once all season. It will be a tall order to do it on Thursday against a Steelers team that has only allowed 20 points three times.

If there is one major area of concern for the Steelers, it's scoring touchdowns in the red zone.

Heading into Sunday's games, the Steelers ranked 22nd in the NFL in red zone scoring percentage, scoring touchdowns only 50% of the time (16 of 32). That percentage dropped to 44.4% after the Steelers went 0-for-4 in the red zone against the Ravens on Sunday.

Part of the issue has been that Pittsburgh has just 11 passing touchdowns for the season, tied for 19th in the NFL. That has improved since Wilson took over as the starter.

But if Pittsburgh is going to do more than just be a great team in the regular season, it's going to have to get better at scoring touchdowns from the red zone.