The Steelers' 2017 regular season ended pretty much how it began on a warm September day in Cleveland -- with a narrow victory over the feisty Browns, only this came by a 28-24 count amid temperatures at Heinz Field that hovered around 10 degrees.
As for the Browns, well, they had just as many wins in that first game as this one, matching the 2008 Lions as the only teams in NFL history to finish a season winless in 16 games.
The Steelers rested starters but didn't rest on their laurels, as rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster had yet another career game, catching nine passes for 143 yards and a touchdown and scoring on a 96-yard kickoff return. The day brought the team's regular-season record to 13-3, matching the 2001 team for third-most in team history, as well as providing a clearer picture of the upcoming playoffs: The Patriots will be the No. 1 seed after their 26-6 win over the Jets, and the No. 2 Steelers will face the highest remaining seed from the two first-round games next week that pit the No. 3 Jaguars vs the No. 6 Bills, and the No. 4 Chiefs against the No. 5 Titans.
"I think it’s perfect for us," said Cameron Heyward, one of the team's six starters to sit this one out. "Nobody is expecting us because we’re not the No. 1. We’re just ready to play football."
The Steelers had six sacks to break the team record of 55 set two other times, including by that 2001 team. Tyson Alualu, who started in place of Heyward, had two, with his final one in the fourth quarter giving the Steelers 56 for the season.
"Anytime you can get to the quarterback and get him on the ground, 56 times or whatever it was, is impressive," said T.J. Watt, who also had a sack to finish his rookie season with seven. "That also gets credited to coverage a lot. Our defensive backs have done a great job of covering and allowing us to get to the quarterback.
"We take a lot of pride from us being able to remove chess pieces from our team and us being able to still go out and put up a strong performance. We like when we have a challenge. We went out and proved something."
Smith-Schuster became the first Pittsburgh player since Gary Ballman in 1963 to have both a receiving and kick return touchdown in the same game. It also was the Steelers' first kickoff return for a touchdown since Antonio Brown returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown on his first NFL touch at Tennessee in 2010.
"Wow, Antonio Brown. Was that his rookie year?" Smith-Schuster asked. "That's crazy. I'm glad to be there with Antonio Brown."
That touchdown, which came early in the third quarter after Cleveland had tied the game at 21-21, would be the final time the Steelers would score. But it wasn't the last time Smith-Schuster would make a big play . The rookie's receiving yards pushed his season total to 917 on 58 catches, breaking the franchise record for the former that Jimmy Orr had set in 1958 with 910.
"It did?" said quarterback Landry Jones, who started in place of Ben Roethlisberger and completed 23 of 27 passes for 239 yards, one touchdown and one interception. "That's great. I didn't know that."
It was that kind of day for the Steelers, who got contributions across the board to beat a Cleveland team that played like it was desperate to avoid a winless season. The Browns battled throughout, showing they were in this for the long haul midway through the first quarter when they stopped fullback Roosevelt Nix on back-to-back carries from the 1 to turn the Steelers over on downs.
Despite being down 7-0 at that time on a 29-yard end-around by Darrius Heyward-Bey, Cleveland's rookie safety Jabrill Peppers walked halfway to the Pittsburgh sideline, letting the Steelers know the Browns weren't going to go quietly.
"Our guys played hard," Cleveland coach Hue Jackson said. "And I've said that all year."
But, in the end, a team with just nine players who had been drafted by Cleveland before the 2016 season couldn't figure out a way to win this one. And the Steelers, despite not playing Heyward, Roethlisberger, an injured Brown, Le'Veon Bell, Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro, did.
"This place has a long tradition of winning," said Jones, who improved to 3-2 as a starter in his career, with three of those wins having come against Cleveland. "Teams just need to know how to win, and this place does."
But few Pittsburgh teams have won more games than this one. The 2004 team went 15-1. And the Steelers went 14-2 in 1978.
This team knows it's done something special but also knows the job isn't finished. While the 1978 team won the Super Bowl, the 2004 and 2001 teams both advanced to the AFC Championship before losing to -- you guessed it -- the New England Patriots. This team, however, feels it has the goods to take down New England, something it showed in a disputed 27-24 loss at Heinz Field Dec. 17.
"We understand that a lot of teams are packing their bags in the NFL right now, but there are a few teams that are getting ready to go into a single-elimination tournament," said Alejandro Villanueva. "For us, it’s time to lock it in and take this as seriously as we can. We know how hard it is to get here. We know the opponents that we have to play. We have a lot of belief in this team."
LOLLEY'S TEN THOUGHTS
1. Was sitting out Roethlisberger, Bell, Pouncey, DeCastro and Heyward -- all heathy scratches -- the right thing to do?
I believe so. And I would have stuck with that thinking even if the Steelers had somehow lost to Cleveland and New England had lost to the Jets.
Yes, the Steelers had placed a lot of emphasis on beating the Patriots to get home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs a couple of weeks ago. But it was just as important for this team to go toe-to-toe with the Patriots at nearly full strength and see how they measured up, as it was for them to beat New England.
This team will not be intimidated going into Gillette Stadium. And it will have a healthy Brown, the only starter out with an injury Sunday, to help matters along. The Steelers feel like they did everything but win that game here two weeks ago. And that was without Brown for three quarters and Joe Haden, Marcus Gilbert and Vance McDonald for the entire game.
They'll take their chances. Mike Tomlin chose health over the longshot possibility the Jets would pull off the upset. And he wasn't wrong.
But that doesn't mean the guys who sat out necessarily liked it. DeCastro hadn't missed a snap all season and had a 71-game consecutive games played streak snapped -- the most of any guard in the league. Heyward, meanwhile, wanted to play all 16 games after missing significant chunks of time last season for the first time in his career.
"Guys were telling me I was up on the (inactive) board and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not on the inactive list. That can’t be possible. I’ve got stuff to do this week.’" Heyward said. "I asked Coach T and he said, ‘Let these other guys get it. Rely on them. Keep everyone involved.’ "
But it was tough standing on the sideline in sub-freezing temperatures.
"I know, he tried to torture me, didn’t he?" Heyward said. "I’ve never had to double-pants it. That was not fun."
Not fun, but necessary to make sure this team is primed for what Heyward called a three-game winning streak.
"I know everybody is going to be ready to go," said Stephon Tuitt. "It’s a one-game elimination. I know everybody is going to be ready."
2. The tough thing about facing the Steelers' defense this season is that the team-record 56 sacks have come from 15 different players.
It makes it awfully difficult to key in on one guy, such as Heyward and his team-leading 12, when they are coming from all over the place.
"You’ve got to accommodate for a lot of people," Tuitt said. "That’s the beauty of it. We can switch it up on you. Everybody can make a play."
Cleveland quarterback DeShone Kizer often didn't know who was coming. The Steelers experimented with some new blitzes in this game as they continue to try to figure out how to make things work at inside linebacker without Ryan Shazier. And they did a nice job with Cleveland's running game, limiting their running backs to 21 carries for 41 yards.
But we also saw what can happen when a team plays a lot of man coverage, as Kizer broke containment several times and scrambled for 61 yards on six rushing attempts.
"We allowed him to get out a couple of times," said Tyson Alualu. "We've got to do a better job there."
3. One of the best things to come out of this game was the play of Stevan Ridley.
Starting in place of Bell, Ridley got 17 carries and finished with 80 yards and a touchdown. Not bad for a guy who wasn't even on the roster -- or any roster in the league -- for most of this season.
"I liked what I saw," said Tomlin. "He's got a definite run demeanor, and we'll look forward to him continuing with whatever we are asking him to do."
The Steelers hope that is not carrying the ball anymore. The reason they sat Bell and went with Ridley and Fitzgerald Toussaint this week was to make sure their Pro Bowl running back is completely healthy rolling into the postseason after touching the ball 407 times this season. They would be more than content for Ridley to spend the rest of his time standing around and watching.
4. I voted for Smith-Schuster as the team's Joe Greene Great Performance Award winner as the team's rookie of the year.
I got some blowback on that from people who voted for T.J. Watt. Both were deserving candidates. But Smith-Schuster finished his rookie season with 58 catches for 917 yards and seven touchdowns. And he missed two games. The team record for receptions by a rookie is 61 by Troy Edwards in 1999. And Smith-Schuster just broke Orr's record for yards. He came up just short of Louis Lipps' record of nine receiving touchdowns by a first-year player.
That's not to say Watt didn't have a great season. He finished with seven sacks -- including one Sunday -- and an interception. He had eight tackles, two QB hits, two tackles for a loss and a pass defensed, as well, in this game.
But he also was in coverage on the Browns' first touchdown when receiver Rashard Higgins beat him off the line of scrimmage and Watt made the mistake of leaving his feet, trying to deflect that pass:
That will be something the coaching staff will drill home with him this week. You can't leave your feet, especially when matched against a faster receiver. That's the thing that Brandon Boykin never got when he was with the Steelers. And it was a big reason he couldn't get on the field until late in that season.
5. Kudos to Cleveland running back Duke Johnson.
Johnson, a teammate at the University of Miami of Artie Burns, Sean Spence and Anthony Chickillo, was getting greetings from a lot of Steelers players throughout this game.
The 50,000 or so fans in attendance couldn't even get mad at Johnson when he did this:
Johnson, as he has done since Shazier was injured, went to a knee and then made a 5-0 sign when he got up after scoring. Shazier, as he has been the past two home games now, was in attendance.
6. Cleveland's final offensive play was the most Browns thing of a Browns season.
Corey Coleman, a 2016 first-round draft pick, dropped a ball right in his hands on fourth down.
"I have not talked to Corey Coleman yet," Jackson said. "But I will. I'll put my arms around him and say, 'You have to make those plays.' "
The man is being paid millions -- presumably -- to talk to his players like that, but when you go 1-31 over the last two seasons, it's tough to justify bringing anyone and everyone back. I'm guessing Tomlin would have taken a different tack. But then, Tomlin has never been in charge of a winless team.
I'm pretty sure Coleman knows he has to make that play. That's why the Browns traded out of the No. 2 pick last year, where they could have taken Carson Wentz, and continued to move down to the point they took Coleman in the first round.
Yeah, that isn't coming back to haunt them.
"That's a tough situation to be in," Jackson admitted. "He didn't make it. ... That play will be remembered."
Is it any wonder Haden is an extremely happy guy to have escaped that?
Haden, by the way, was the Steelers' lone captain today with Roethlisberger and Heyward both inactive. That was a nice touch.
7. Think about that play.
Then think about the fact the Browns passed on Smith-Schuster not once, not twice, not three times, but four times in this year's draft. Yeah, that's how you wind up 0-16.
When the Steelers selected Smith-Schuster in the second round, it was considered a luxury pick. Nobody is questioning that selection now.
"I wish everybody had a JuJu in their life," Villanueva quipped. "He's a very fun person to be around, great personality, works extremely hard, loves football."
The Browns certainly wish they had a JuJu in their life.
8. As you all probably know by now, James Harrison had two sacks Sunday in his debut for the Patriots.
His final stat line read five tackles, two sacks and two other quarterback hits in New England's win over New York. But that was with Bryce Petty at quarterback for the Jets and Kelvin Beachum at left tackle. They also came on the final two plays of a 26-6 rout.
That's a nice start for Harrison. But let's see how he does against real competition before we say the Steelers made some kind of mistake by not playing him.
9. Landry Jones is better than you think.
I know, that's a low bar. But after an understandably slow start, he finished with just four incompletions in 27 attempts. He threw for 239 yards and a touchdown.
And that was with a backup line that included Chris Hubbard at center after B.J. Finney left with right leg injury. No Brown. No Bell. No Pouncey. No DeCastro.
I've said it before, but I'll write it here now: This team would have had 10 or 11 wins with that talent on the field with Jones at quarterback. Would it have been 13? No. But the Steelers would have still won their division. And they'd still possibly have a bye in the opening week of the playoffs.
Jones isn't the long-term answer or any answer for the Steelers if Roethlisberger decides to retire -- and I doubt he does. Jones is now 3-2 as an NFL starter and all three wins have come against Cleveland. But he's a legitimate NFL quarterback.
That's more than the Browns can say that they have without a doubt on their roster.
10. So the AFC playoff field is now set, with Buffalo (!) and Tennessee (?) grabbing the final two spots Sunday. Nobody saw that coming.
In some ways that bodes well for the Steelers. I thought Jacksonville would be ripe for the picking in the opening round of the playoffs. They're a team not accustomed to winning and limped to the finish line. But I'm not sure Buffalo is the team that can pull that off.
And Tennessee isn't going into Kansas City and beating the Chiefs.
So if the seeds hold true, that sends Jacksonville to Pittsburgh in the second round and Kansas City to New England. The interesting thing is that both of those visiting teams won games at Heinz Field and Gillette Stadium this season.
What we do know is that the divisional round game will be played at 1:05 p.m. Jan. 14.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Browns, Heinz Field, Dec. 31, 2017 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
