Browns Shock World

The Browns stunned the Steelers in the biggest upset of “Super Wild Card Weekend,” 48-37, to advance to an AFC divisional matchup at Kansas City next Sunday.

Cleveland (12-5) stormed to a 28-0 first-quarter lead, then held off a furious Pittsburgh comeback attempt that had the lead trimmed to 12 points at the start of the fourth quarter. The Pittsburgh rally didn’t last. Nick Chubb took a screen pass from Baker Mayfield early in the fourth quarter and turned it into a 40-yard touchdown.

The final result put the Steelers (12-5) out of the misery of a season that at one point seemed so promising — they were the NFL’s last unbeaten team at 11-0 — before skidding off the rails over the past six weeks.

Cleveland, in the playoffs for the first time since 2002, had not won in postseason since Jan. 1, 1995, when it was coached by Bill Belichick and won a 1994 wild-card game against the New England Patriots.

On Sunday night, the Browns didn’t even have their coach, Kevin Stefanski, on the sideline, and still won at an empty Heinz Field. Stefanski was back in Cleveland, quarantined after testing positive for COVID-19, leaving special teams coordinator Mike Priefer to serve as interim coach and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt to call the plays. The Browns were also without two starters in their secondary, Denzel Ward and Andrew Sendejo, nickel back Kevin Johnson and starting left guard Joel Bitonio, all inactive while on the COVID-19 reserve list.

Countering all that the Browns did not have, here’s what they had for a winning formula:

  — A quick, early lead provided by a Steelers gaffe. Center Maurkice Pouncey’s wild shotgun snap on the game’s first offensive play was kicked into the end zone and recovered by Karl Joseph for a Cleveland touchdown.

  — Four interceptions of Ben Roethlisberger, who until Sunday night had never lost to the Browns at Heinz Field (13-0) and was 24-2-1 against the AFC North foe. The first pick led to a 40-yard, Baker Mayfield-to-Jarvis Landry touchdown that made it 14-0, roughly five minutes into the contest. The second pick led to the second of Kareem Hunt’s two first-quarter TD runs, extending the lead to 28-0.

 — They answered the Steelers over an over again. Late in the first half, Cleveland responded to Pittsburgh’s first TD with its own TD march. In the fourth quarter, Cleveland regained momentum with Chubb’s TD reception after the Steelers produced two second-half TD drives.

The Steelers came into Sunday night’s affair with history on their side; they have consistently taken care of business against the Browns at home, including earlier this season with a 38-7 rout of Cleveland. But almost nothing went their way early on in their latest showdown with the Browns, who deflected two passes for picks, neutered every other piece of the Steelers’ offensive attack, and embraced the chance to let Baker Mayfield play it cool and lean on the battering duo of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt. Even later in the matchup, when Roethlisberger definitely turned it up a notch and started finding JuJu Smith-Schuster and Chase Claypool for important gains, so much of Pittsburgh’s production felt nestled in garbage time.

The Browns are onto Kansas City, where they’ll face Patrick Mahomes and the rest of the defending champions. The Browns will have Kevin Stefanski back on the sideline, who enjoyed Sunday night’s game from the comfort of his basement. Pittsburgh will begin what could be an interesting offseason, as the Steelers have several notable free agents that include Smith-Schuster, James Conner and Bud Dupree, among others.