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Winners and Losers from Steelers win over Cleveland in Week 12

Plenty of dominant defensive performances in Pittsburgh's 27-11 whipping of AFC North rival Cleveland in Week 12, including one that will likely be recognized by the league.

By Neal Coolong
Matt Sullivan
Winners

Jason Worilds - SIX quarterback hits. He had seven this season heading into the game (according to Pro Football Focus). Unofficially, barring a huge game from someone else, Worilds will lead the NFL in quarterback hits. Read that sentence again. It's kinda fun.

William Gay - A pick six and a huge sack that forced a fumble leading to another touchdown. Could have been Gay's best career game. We called it for a teammate of his last week, so we'll do it again...Eight words: Aye Eff Cee Defensive Player of the Week.

Cameron Heyward - It seems like he gets better each week. And he wasn't going up against Mitchell Schwartz here (with all due respect to Worilds), Heyward had Joe Thomas. Heyward may have even won the battle overall. He had a tackle for loss and a hit on the quarterback, and was oftentimes hot in pursuit of a ball carrier along with Worilds.

Troy Polamalu - Two forced fumbles for Polamalu, leading the defensive spark that led to a season-high four takeaways. He did it more mentally than anything else, patiently lining up his attack as ball carriers were wrapping up and leaving the player prone to be picked.

Ben Roethlisberger - A controlled and sustainable performance. Like last week, there were still some throws he'd like back, and it wasn't a perfect performance, but the general absence of imperfection along with a suddenly thriving offensive line revealed a very dangerous passing attack.

Losers

Ike Taylor - Without getting too down about an otherwise outstanding performance, it's fair to ask Taylor if Josh Gordon was on his Fantasy team. A horrendous performance by Taylor in this game. Gordon's a good player, but Taylor basically didn't stop him all game. He finished with 14 catches on 17 targets for 237 yards and a touchdown. And just so Taylor could make sure none of us forgot about him, gave up one last throw at the end where it seemed like he would rather have been somewhere else.

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