CLEVELAND — Seven yards from the end zone, seven points from a tie score and an AFC North-clinching win within reach, Aaron Rodgers dropped back.
The 42-year-old quarterback had already tested the Cleveland Browns’ Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward on second and third down; both throws fell incomplete. On fourth down with just over 20 seconds remaining, Rodgers took one more shot, flicking a back-shoulder jump ball to Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
“The ball went up,” Valdes-Scantling said. “(Ward) did a good job of playing through me. I thought it should have — or could have — got a call, but no call was made.”
That play was the final whimper from a Steelers offense that looked anemic without DK Metcalf, Calvin Austin III and Darnell Washington. But the quote? That’s an even better way to sum up a woulda, coulda, shoulda afternoon at Huntington Bank Field.
Entering Sunday, it appeared everything was lined up for a memorable afternoon in Cleveland. The Steelers had responded to Week 13 “Fire Tomlin” chants with a three-game winning streak. Coming off their signature win of the season in Detroit seven days ago, they needed only to knock off the Browns to clinch the AFC North.
In another world, Mike Tomlin would have been pounding his chest and blowing kisses into the camera with an AFC North Champions hat pulled over his head and an important milestone in his pocket. On Sunday, Tomlin woulda, coulda, shoulda tied legendary coach Chuck Noll with a franchise-record 193 regular-season wins — and he would have done so in 34 fewer games.
Instead of matching Noll, Tomlin delivered one of the worst losses of his 19-year Steelers tenure.
Sure, the Steelers have lost to Browns teams plenty of times. They are 1-6-1 in Cleveland since 2018; Sunday made it four straight losses at Huntington Bank Field. They’ve lost to lowly non-contenders in the past, especially on the heels of signature wins. They’ve blown chances to clinch the division and control their own destiny, including as recently as last year when they lost to the Ravens in Baltimore. In some ways, Sunday’s result was more predictable than it was shocking. But it’s hard to remember a game against such an inferior opponent game with so much at stake that the Steelers completely squandered.
“I didn’t think we played poorly,” Tomlin said. “We just didn’t make enough plays. We never made that signature play that kind of got us over the hump.”
The Browns entered the game with as many wins (three) as quarterbacks started. On a wet, dreary afternoon, the Steelers spotted Shedeur Sanders and company 10 points on their first two drives. During a first-quarter, 86-yard touchdown drive, Sanders beat one safety (Chuck Clark) for 42 yards and the other (Kyle Dugger) for a 28-yard touchdown.
While the defense settled in from there, forcing two turnovers and not allowing another point until the game’s final two minutes (a chip-shot field goal set up by a turnover on downs), the offense played one of its worst games of the season. The shortcomings started with Rodgers, who acknowledged he “didn’t have a very good game.” The future Hall of Famer completed only 21 of 39 passes for 168 yards; 58 of those came on the final drive.
“That’s usually, as an offense, the most frustrating thing, when you feel like you’re letting the team down,” veteran receiver Adam Thielen said. “The defense played so well, gave us so many opportunities with short fields, getting us the ball to be able to go and score and ultimately win the game.”
With a depleted group of weapons, Aaron Rodgers had one of his worst games of the season. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
Browns star defensive end Myles Garrett entered the game with 22.0 sacks, just one away from surpassing Hall of Famer Michael Strahan and Steelers edge rusher T.J. Watt for the NFL’s official single-season record. While Garrett didn’t register a sack, he logged three pressures and said after the game that the Steelers were “more worried about keeping me away from Aaron than getting the win.”
Tomlin disagreed with that analysis.
“We didn’t do anything against Myles that we don’t normally do against Myles,” Tomlin said. “The sack record is irrelevant. We’ve got to minimize him if we want to engineer victory. We did the same thing last time we played them.”
Whether the Steelers were concerned with the record or not, Garrett’s mere presence made an impact that went beyond the stat sheet. Rodgers’ average time from snap to release was 2.32 seconds, according to TruMedia. That’s the fifth fastest of his season from a quarterback who’s been atop the NFL in that stat for most of the year.
Metcalf’s absence, no doubt, made an impact, as well. The Browns run the most Cover 1 (single-high-safety man coverage) in the league, deploying that coverage on more than 40 percent of snaps entering Sunday. They have also played Cover 3 (single-high-safety zone coverage) on 30 percent of snaps this year. In the first meeting, Rodgers took advantage of all those single-high looks by throwing long to Metcalf. Without Metcalf on Sunday, Steelers receivers struggled to create — Rodgers went just 3-for-11 on passes with eight air yards or more.
“(Metcalf) is paid the way he is for a reason, because he’s a difference maker,” Thielen said. “He draws a lot of attention, and he makes a lot of big plays. So, yeah, tough to not have him there, but that’s no excuse.”
For their part, most of the players put a positive spin on the loss and their current win-or-go-home situation.
“The competitor in me is (thinking), ‘We lost this game, we lost a chance to clinch today,’” Cameron Heyward said. “But the competitor in me is (also) like, ‘Bring it on. Baltimore is coming in. Winner takes all.’”
Outside linebacker Alex Highsmith echoed a similar sentiment: “That’s the thing about this game. You’ve got to love it, even when it hurts. It hurts right now to not be wearing the hats and T-shirts right now. So we can never be shaken by our circumstances. Right now, our circumstances are what they are. We have to go get a win. It’s for our season on Sunday.”
Meanwhile, Rodgers exuded positivity.
“I have full confidence we’ll go home and win next week,” Rodgers said.
Why?
“Because we’ve done it all season,” Rodgers said. “We’ve handled adversity well. When we had to play our best ball, we did … other than today.”
Maybe they will. Maybe they’ll hold down Derrick Henry, who just rushed for 216 yards and four touchdowns in Green Bay on Saturday, and we’ll forget all about this loss while talking about another Tomlin-led rally for a fifth playoff berth in six seasons.
If the Steelers cannot beat the Ravens, though, this loss will linger. We’ll be looking back at Week 17 in Cleveland as not just another so-called “Tomlin Special,” but perhaps the ultimate one.