They showed up ready for a physical confrontation with a familiar foe. Look no further than a tone-setting 17-play touchdown drive on their opening possession, capped by a touchdown flip forward from Rodgers to Wilson, who came in motion and scored from 12 yards out.
While that ate up 9:48 of clock, it turned out that getting to the second quarter wasn’t a good thing for the Steelers. That’s where everything went wrong.
The Browns outscored the Steelers, 21-3, in the final 12:15 of the first half, including back-to-back-to-back touchdown drives before Chris Boswell hit a 31-yard field goal with 8 seconds to go until the break. Jaleel McLaughlin weaved through Steelers defenders for a 28-yard touchdown run that got the Browns on the board, followed by a couple of 2-yard touchdowns, one on a rush by Quinshon Judkins and the other on a pass from Watson to Harold Fannin Jr.
“Self-inflicted wounds,” Heyward said. “Execution was not high today. We had penalties. But I’m not going to make excuses. They got the job done on their side.”
Boswell’s field goal made it 21-10 at halftime, with the Steelers getting the ball first on the ensuing kickoff. But all they could muster was repeat three-and-outs until the clock struck Watt.
T.J. Watt stripped Watson on a read-option play and recovered the fumble himself at the 50. With a new set of downs at midfield, the Steelers couldn’t move the ball and instead had to settle for Cameron Johnston’s fourth punt of the night.
Another Steelers pass-rusher came up huge, though, when Jack Sawyer tipped a Watson pass early in the fourth quarter. Rookie safety Robert Spears-Jennings came up with his first career interception, and a savvy challenge by head coach Mike McCarthy paid off. After Daylen Everette was flagged for pass interference, McCarthy threw the red flag for officials to review whether Sawyer got a finger on the ball. He did, which negated the penalty, and the ruling was overturned.
The Steelers turned that takeaway into points, on a drive highlighted by a 43-yard hook-up from Rodgers to a diving DK Metcalf. Rodgers threw another dime while on the move to Darnell Washington, who snagged it in the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown catch that made it 21-16 with 10:10 remaining. The Steelers went for 2 to cut it to a one-score game, but could not convert.