The Pittsburgh Steelers kept rolling Sunday, getting revenge on the Cleveland Browns with a 27-14 win at Acrisure Stadium. The offense, which put up 44 points last week, followed it up with 27 points, improving to 10-3 and opening up a two-game lead over Baltimore in the AFC North.
The hero of this Pittsburgh team is usually the defense with players T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick and Cameron Heyward. The defense did its job yet again, snagging two picks and recovering a fumble.
Keeanu Benton notched his first interception of the season, James Pierre pocketed a pick in the fourth quarter, and Ben Skowronek recovered a fumble on a muffed punt.
Although the defense is usually the stars of the show, the offense capitalized when it needed to Sunday. Russell Wilson threw two touchdown passes, going 15 of 26 for 158 yards.
Najee Harris tallied 53 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown. Pat Freiermuth and Van Jefferson both caught touchdown passes.
The Steelers scored two touchdowns in the third quarter to pull away from the visitors on a day in which four former Steeler greats were inducted into the franchise’s Hall of Honor. Those honored Sunday were Jason Gildon, Casey Hampton, Willie Parker and Dick LeBeau.
Wilson said the offense followed offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s lead.
“We came out hot in the second half … and just really executed our offense,” Wilson said. “We executed what Arthur wanted us to get to and I thought that it was a good thing and it was cool to see Van get in the end zone.
“We went up-tempo on that and then the one later to Pat up the seam. That was a great job.”
It wasn’t quite as great as the previous week, though, when the offense scored 44 against the Bengals. In that game, Wilson threw for 414 yards, throwing touchdown passes to Freiemuth, George Pickens – who was held out of Sunday’s game against the Browns due to injury concerns — and Calvin Austin III.
The Steelers had seven players with multiple receptions last week, and four players this week.
With Pickens out of the lineup Sunday, Wilson had to find some new targets. Scotty Miller caught three passes for 38 yards and Mike Williams caught three passes for 36 yards. Williams had a 22-yard reception that put the Steelers in the red zone and led to a 20-yard touchdown pass to Freiermuth.
Wilson again credited Smith for the team’s ability to continue to find open guys, exploiting defenses.
“I’ve got to give credit to Arthur for all the stuff we were able to do,” Wilson said. “I think that a lot of it is spending time on film study and what we can see and what we like and Pat did a great job running up the seam.”
Wilson added the team focuses just on finding ways to score and taking what the defense gives them.
“We had a little bit of a different concept earlier in the week and we just adjusted it later in the week and I was, ‘Hey man, if he runs that seam, he may be wide open,’” Wilson said. “We talked about that and those little Friday meetings helped. We’re always working and we’re always trying to find ways to score, and I think when you have a complete team effort, it always helps you.”
Photos by Mike Longo Jr.
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