CLEVELAND -- The Browns ended their 17-game losing streak on Sunday. Except they didn't win.
Cleveland ended its extensive losing streak by finishing with a 21-21 tie against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Sunday's season opener. The Browns' last offensive play was a 43-yard field goal try by Zane Gonzalez that was blocked by the Steelers' T.J. Watt.
"A sour feeling," quarterback Tyrod Taylor said.
"It feels like a loss," said guard Joel Bitonio, who had to try to block two players on the field goal, which allowed Watt to go inside him to get one hand on the ball.
Neither team left the field happy.
"Hell yeah it feels like a loss," Steelers defensive lineman Cam Heyward said. "I'm sorry for using that kind of language, but if we settle for those, we're going to be an awfully pissed-off bunch."
Both missed field goal tries were in overtime, though Gonzalez's was more dramatic, given the setup. Thirteen seconds were left when the play was snapped. A successful play would have given the Browns their first victory since Christmas Eve 2016.
"I felt like somebody was offside over there on the other side," Browns coach Hue Jackson said of Artie Burns and Sean Davis on the right side of the Steelers' alignment. "Obviously, they did not call it."
The Steelers led 21-7 midway through the fourth quarter, but the Browns came back to score the final 14 points in regulation. The Browns had five chances to win after tying the game and got close only when Joe Schobert recovered a fumble caused by rookie Genard Avery with less than a minute left. Schobert returned the fumble to the 14, but a penalty on Myles Garrett for blocking in the back on the return put the Browns back to the 24.
"A bad play by me," said Garrett, who otherwise had an excellent game with two sacks, a tackle for loss and two forced fumbles.
It was the first tie in Steelers-Browns history -- spanning 133 games, including the playoffs -- and the first tie for the Browns since a 10-10 game with the Chiefs in 1989. But that one didn't follow an 0-16 season. Or two seasons in which the Browns went 1-31 combined.
"Did not finish it," Jackson said. "Obviously, a tie. A tie."
The tie meant the Browns avoided a franchise-record 18th loss in a row, but the team's winless streak is now at 624 days. And counting.