Minkah Fitzpatrick celebrates a 33-yard pick six in the first quarter of the Steelers' 38-7 blowout of Browns. (AP Photo/Justin Berl)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
The Browns’ second game against their toughest division rivals was a carbon copy of their first.
They fell behind early on a Baker Mayfield interception and then could not stop a fierce defensive onslaught applied by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Spotting the Steelers a 10-0 lead on their home field was a recipe for offensive suicide, just like it was in Game 1 in Baltimore.
Another Sunday in Heinz Field mushroomed into a football nightmare as the Steelers reaffirmed their superiority with a 38-7 bludgeoning, extending the Browns’ losing streak in always-dank Pittsburgh to 17 years. The Steelers are 5-0; the Browns 4-2.
Mayfield, who worked through sore ribs during the practice week, was mercifully lifted after the Steelers stopped Kareem Hunt cold on a fourth-and-1 carry at the Browns’ 30 with 5:55 left.
By then, the Steelers were up, 24-7, and the Browns could have played well into next week without finding the end zone.
It was the first time Mayfield did not finish a game he started for the Browns, other than some kneel-down capitulations by his backup last season.
“I just did not want to see him get hit one more time, and I put that on myself,” Stefanski said. “He is a very, very tough player and I know he wants to fight, but it is a long season, we have a game next week and I did not feel like it was the right thing to put him back out there.”
Mayfield suffered through one of his worst outings in three years – and the third losing effort in three appearances in Heinz Field.
He was 10 of 18 for 119 yards. He managed one touchdown to Rashard Higgins when his eyes influenced the Steelers’ defense away from Higgins dashing to the right corner of the end zone. But that’s the only play on which the Steelers were outfoxed.
Mayfield was intercepted on his first pass of the game when he didn’t see safety Minkah Fitzpatrick breaking on his throw to tight end Harrison Bryant. Fitzpatrick’s 33-yard touchdown return made it 10-0, Steelers, and was blood in the water for Pittsburgh’s No. 1 defense.
Their speedy outside rushers kept Mayfield from bootlegging or rolling outside, where he is a much better thrower. Penned in the pocket, Mayfield had trouble connecting with Odell Beckham Jr. (two catches for 25 yards on four targets) and Jarvis Landry (three for 40 yards on five targets).
Mayfield’s only completion on a bootleg pass came with 5 ½ minutes left in the first quarter and netted the Browns their first first down. The mounting deficit nullified the Nick Chubb-less Browns’ league-leading running game (Kareem Hunt had 40 yards on 13 carries, 10 alone coming on one run) and rendered their vaunted offensive line as merely mortal.
Mayfield was intercepted a second time when he retreated under duress on third-and-12 and threw up a Hail Mary while backpedaling. It was intended for Higgins. It led to Ben Roethlisberger’s 28-yard touchdown pass to James Washington and a 24-0 Steelers’ lead with 5:43 to go in the second quarter.
At that point, speculation mounted about Mayfield being pulled at halftime. But he cobbled together a touchdown drive – greatly aided by two Pittsburgh defensive penalties – and Stefanski decided to let Mayfield start the second half despite the physical beating he was absorbing and his ineffectiveness (1 of 7 on third downs in the first half.
“I checked in with him. I checked in with the medical staff. He was cleared. It does not mean he was not sore. He was cleared to play,” Stefanski said.
“The (third quarter) play, we run a screen and he gets hit. Again, point the finger at me, please. That is not good enough.”
Stefanski fell on his sword immediately in his post-game comments.
But more than de-geniusing Stefanski as an offensive schemer who produced four wins a row, the loss exposed the limitations in Mayfield when the bootleg and misdirection game is taken away by teams with speedy edge defenders.
In total, the Browns were 1 of 15 converting third and fourth downs.
“I did not do a good job there,” Stefanski said. “We did not get people open. I need to figure out a way to get some easy ones for the Q (quarterback). We just did not have people open.”
Stefanski acknowledged he did not expect to be able to get Mayfield out of the pocket. The Steelers are not the Bengals or Cowboys or even the Colts.
“They played pretty wide on the edges, and they are pretty aggressive. I felt like we had a plan to try to move the ball in the run and the pass,” Stefanski said.
The truth of this game is the Browns’ defense seemed fit for the challenge at the start. It stymied Roethlisberger to 2-of-8 passing through his first three possessions.
Roethlisberger found his rhythm on his fourth series and set up a 17-0 lead with a picture-perfect throw to rookie sensation Chase Claypool over Terrance Mitchell for 36 yards. Claypool scored his sixth TD in his fifth career game off a jet sweep for 2 yards in the third quarter and then set up the final touchdown on a 23-yard catch and reach for the goal line that came up a yard short.
In running his record to 13-0 in Heinz Field and 24-2-1 overall against the Browns, Roethlisberger left the game with an efficient 16-of-22, 162-yard, no-turnover stat line before turning it over to Mason Rudolph.
By then, Myles Garrett was wisely removed by Stefanski. The Steelers demonstrated no retaliation against Garrett for clubbing Rudolph with his helmet in the November game last year.
Garrett extended his streak to six games with a sack of Roethlisberger, but otherwise could not affect this game like he had the four previous Browns victories.
So now the Browns are 4-2, with their only losses being to the class of their division by almost identical scores of 38-6 to Baltimore and 38-7 to Pittsburgh.
“It is one game,” Garrett said. “We will see them again and then you will be able to measure how we stack up against either of them. Until then, just leave it as it is. They had our number. We have a game plan, we adjust, come back and we will be at full strength by then.”
Mayfield, who has thrown four interceptions over the last four quarters of play, said, “Not discouraging. No matter the score, it only counts for one. The good thing is we play both those teams again and we can learn and get better. It is on to the Bengals now and we have to continue to get better.”
Yes, they’re on to the Bengals. That’s the tonic for healing the scars of this one.