CLEVELAND — A game in which snow blanketed Huntington Bank Field may have ironically helped the Pittsburgh Steelers see a few things that will be beneficial in the long run.

For all the frustration emanating from the visitors' locker room late Thursday night, the Steelers didn't completely ruin their season with a 24-19 loss to the Browns. They made mistakes, Cleveland was better in several areas, and the result was another memorable-for-all-the-wrong-reasons outcome in this city.

But as the Steelers (8-3) enjoy a mini-bye before their game next Sunday in Cincinnati, one slice of good news is that a few areas of concern have been identified. The question is now what the Steelers can or will do to change them.

"We'll learn," Russell Wilson said. "We'll study and figure out what we can do better. There's more there. ... We'll respond the right way."

So how might that response look? Let's examine five things that deserve more attention.

Distribution of passes

Strangely enough for a game in which the Steelers failed to score 20 points for a second consecutive week, they had several depth guys make plays. Calvin Austin III caught a 46-yarder deep over the middle and a 23-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter when the Steelers briefly had the lead.

Wilson found Van Jefferson for 35 yards along the sideline on third-and-10 midway through the third quarter, and Pat Freiermuth was the most involved he's been this season with four catches for 59 yards.

Perfect? No, of course not. The Mike Williams situation remains baffling. Don't know why the Steelers would trade for a guy if they didn't plan to play him (one target in three games). I'm also unsure why Cordarrelle Patterson is being used in key situations.

But the upshot was seeing Austin, Jefferson and Freiermuth contributing in a way that could help, provided the Steelers can figure out how to do a better job sustaining drives. Especially in the red zone, that remains a mystifying part of this team's performance thus far.

"I thought we had some explosive plays down the field," Wilson said. "But once we have those explosive plays, we have to make sure we get touchdowns after that."

Delineation of quarterbacks

Loved the 30-yard run from Fields that looked initially liked it might've been a touchdown.

Hated the fourth-down call and especially having someone other than your starting quarterback throw a key pass on third-and-4 with under four minutes to go in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers saw what Fields can do so well and how his athleticism can surely help them. But they've yet to strike the proper balance and find the proper spots in the game to get him involved.

Deceiving run game

In what feels like a misleading stat from Thursday's game, the Steelers actually ran for 120 yards. They had 122 last week against Baltimore. At the same time, Najee Harris went from three consecutive 100-yard games to someone with just 104 yards on 34 carries (3.1 average) the past two games.

Jaylen Warren (20 carries, 86 yards, 4.3 average) has been slightly better on a per-carry basis, but the running game has hardly been a weapon in AFC North play.

As temperatures drop and desperation rises, that has to change.

"We have a lot of football left, a lot of opportunities to respond," Wilson said. "Everything that we want is still in front of us. We have to be able to refresh after this weekend, come back and push for the stretch. We have the guys to do it."

Protecting Wilson

There was no shortage of Myles Garrett-versus-T.J. Watt talk before this one, even though the two MVPs don't play directly against one another. Thursday also provided an interesting dichotomy when it comes to the direction of the Steelers in passing situations — both with how they protect Wilson and how they're getting after opposing quarterbacks.

Wilson was sacked four times against Cleveland, a number he's now hit in three of the past four games. It was especially bad in the first half, when protection lacked and Wilson was also guilty of holding on to the ball too long.

Fields bought the Steelers time with his legs, a lever the 35-year-old Wilson no longer has to pull. It's incumbent on Wilson and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith to get the ball out quicker, in rhythm, and prevent these sacks from ruining drives.

Amid another slow start (Steelers are 25th in first-quarter points per game with 3.2), Garrett sacked Wilson on Pittsburgh's first drive, forcing a Chris Boswell 58-yard field goal attempt that was obviously missed.

The Browns defensive end also forced a Wilson fumble on the Steelers' fourth drive and sacked him on third-and-10 from around midfield just before halftime.

Garrett was really good, but the Steelers also need this to be a turning point when it comes to how they're protecting Wilson.

The flip side

While Nick Herbig made another big play, his strip sack of Winston leading to the Steelers' second touchdown in 102 seconds and a 19-18 lead with 6:15 left, we can zoom out some and see a concerning trend.

The Steelers had just that sack by Herbig against a team that has allowed an NFL-high 47 this season. And on Thursday it was playing without two of its top tackles, no less.

"They executed on a better level than us," Herbig said. "We have to take a look at the film and see what we can do better."

Furthermore, the Steelers are very much middle-of-the-pack with 25 sacks of their own through 11 games. That works out to a projected total of 39, which would be their worst such season since finishing with 38 in 2016.

The Steelers have two meetings with Joe Burrow, plus one apiece against Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes and Winston. They simply must do a better job pressuring the quarterback.

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