The Browns secured a wild-card playoff berth for the first time since 2002 with a 24-22 win over the Steelers. (Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
Nothing has come easy for the Browns in this pandemic-marred season, especially over the last eight days. And the resilience that was forged by repeated Covid-related interruptions and player and staff losses, and sharpened by coach Kevin Stefanski, served them well on a franchise-cleansing day to start the New Year.
With a nail-biting, 24-22 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers’ JV squad on Sunday, the Browns officially have rung in a new era three days into 2021.
“We achieved what we set out to do today – win and you are in – and we are in, but there is work left to be done,” said Stefanski. “The goal was never just to make the playoffs. That is the message to the guys, and they understand that.”
The new era starts with a playoff appearance for the first time in 18 seasons against – who else? – the Steelers in haunting Heinz Field, where the Browns have not won in 17 years. The game will be Sunday at 8:15 p.m. on NBC's Sunday Night Football.
The Steelers eliminated the Browns in their last two post-season appearances following the 2002 and 1994 seasons. Besides that, they eliminated the Browns in the final regular-season game 12 straight times until Sunday.
The Steelers cooperated to set up the third post-season meeting of the 70-year rivalry not only by losing on Sunday with nine key players left home, including Browns-nemesis Ben Roethlisberger, but by defeating the Indianapolis Colts the week before.
But the Browns were down six regulars to Covid protocols, too, in addition to three assistant coaches. Their facility was shut down three times as Covid disrupted this most important week and limited practice to a total of about 2 ½ hours.
And yet, the Browns managed a clean game, committing only four penalties, and no turnovers.
Yes, the depleted secondary was torched for three completions of 40-plus yards by Roethlisberger stand-in Mason Rudolph, and Rudolph was only lightly pressured throughout. But the defense made the biggest plays of the game on an interception of Rudolph by cornerback M.J. Stewart with 11:10 left and then pressured Rudolph into a frantic high throw for Chase Claypool with cornerback Robert Jackson on his back on the deciding two-point play with 1:23 to go.
The Browns and their fans had to sweat out a Pittsburgh onside kick recovered at the 50 between the legs of backup tight end Stephen Carlson and then secured beneath a pile of bodies.
With Pittsburgh using two of their timeouts, all the Browns’ offense had to do was gain one first down. It got it on a called keeper run on third-and-2 by determined quarterback Baker Mayfield behind a blow-out block of linebacker Alex Highsmith by running back Kareem Hunt.
Mayfield wisely slid in bounds in front of the Browns’ bench just past the first-down marker to keep the clock running. He jumped up and punched the air with his right fist knowing he had secured the playoff berth that a whole generation of fans, and teammates, thought might never come.
It was a redemptive play, and day, for Mayfield, who vowed before the 2018 draft that he was the quarterback to lead a turnaround of the losingest franchise in the NFL the previous 10 years.
Mayfield had five keeper runs in the tense second half, four for first downs, after dropping the ball three times in the loss to the Jets the previous game that piled the pressure on this game for the Browns.
“It was a moment I will definitely never forget,” said Mayfield, who didn’t commit a turnover in his 196-yard passing day with a 2-yard TD to Austin Hooper.
Nick Chubb had 108 yards and a 47-yard touchdown to surpass 1,000 yards on the season (12 games), Jarvis Landry added a 3-yard jet sweep TD run, and KhaDarel Hodge pulled in a drive-saving catch with his left hand while on the ground. But it was Mayfield who led this victory, mostly with his key runs, and he had more to lose than any single player if the Browns would not have prevailed.
His joy was evident when the win was iced with a final Victory Formation, and also in the post-game Zoom interview.
“The feeling of walking off the field and the energy in the stadium, playing ‘Cleveland Rocks,” Mayfield said. “I can see an old-school video going on and I can look up and see old-school highlights of players like [Browns Legends] Brian Sipe, Bernie Kosar and some old-schoolers on there, and for it to be that loud with the limited number of fans, it is a special moment for us,” Mayfield said.
Yes, the Steelers left nine key players home, but the only shame in the Browns achieving their expansion era-high 11th win and earning their post-season ticket was that only 11,989 fans could attend because of state-wide pandemic regulations.
“There are hundreds of thousands, not just here,” said Myles Garrett, who had no incidents with Rudolph, his antagonist of last year, and even congratulated the Steelers sub after the game for his 315-yard, two-TD passing day.
“The 12,000 here, that was great, but there are so many Browns [fans] all over the world who were happy to see us get this win and finally get into the dance.”
Stefanski, who concluded his first regular-season as coach with an 11-5 record, said, “I am very happy for Northeast Ohio and for Browns fans all over the world. They are not far from our minds when we win. The 12,000 strong, they got to see it live. We know that many people around the country and the world are watching and we feel their support. Happy for them.”
In the locker room, Stefanski gave game balls to owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam and gave the longest-tenured Brown, guard Joel Bitonio, the floor to address the team.
“It was a great team win. It was not perfect by any means,” Bitonio said. “We had some guys out, and I know they rested a bunch of guys and had some guys out, too. The team found a way to win, and that is what it is all about.
“It would have been really cool to have 67,000 people in there, but the 12,000 that were there were making some noise. It was much appreciated. It is just one of those moments you will look back and be like, ‘That is something we have worked for for seven years now.’ It is just cool to have a chance to go to the playoffs. We have a chance. We are in the dance.”
He said he thanked his teammates for changing the team’s culture during this terribly disruptive season.
“There was a culture of losing and a culture of not being able to finish some of the games that we have been in,” Bitonio said. “I just appreciate everybody and hopefully we are setting the stage for a winning culture in Cleveland for a long time.”
Everyone agreed the work is not done. The leaders of the Steelers – Roethlisberger and edge rusher T.J. Watt – will be waiting for the Browns in Heinz Field.
“Everybody likes to get a ticket to the dance, but if you want to dance with the pretty girl, that means you have to make it to the end,” Garrett said.