The players from the Steelers' secondary were beaming after Sunday's 33-18 win over the Browns.
After all, it had taken Baker Mayfield three-and-a-half quarters to finally break 100 yards passing in this game. Mayfield finished with 180 yards on 22 of 36 completions, but he had 75 of that in the final two minutes when he completed seven of nine passes with the game well in hand.
Other than that, Mayfield was largely bottled up. Heck, the Browns had five yards of offense in the third quarter -- on four possessions.
The reason the defense was so good?
"Communication," corner Joe Haden said. "Everybody knew what their assignment was. Communication was really good. And then we made our plays."
Ouch. That wasn't a ringing endorsement for Artie Burns, who didn't play a defensive snap in this game.
Every time we see a big play given up by the Steelers, it's typically because of a "communication" issue or busted coverage.
Many times in recent years, Burns had been involved in some fashion or form.
This is not to say they've all been his fault. There have been others who have had issues. But it wasn't a good look for the 2016 first-round draft pick.
And Haden wasn't the only player to unintentionally throw Burns under the bus.
"It was us all working together," safety Morgan Burnett said. "The coaches put us in great positions and we executed."
Thing is, the Steelers didn't exactly go vanilla on defense, either. They threw some exotic looks at Mayfield, a rookie playing against the Steelers for the first time.
And still, no blown coverages.
"That was our first time playing Baker, so we wanted to rattle him and give him a lot of different looks," slot corner Mike Hilton told me. "The defensive line got a lot of pressure on him and we made our plays on the back end, also."
Even when starter Coty Sensabaugh, who had been rotating with Burns opposite Haden the past few games, was injured in the fourth quarter, it wasn't Burns who replaced him. Instead, Cameron Sutton took his place.
This doesn't mean Burns can't regain a starting spot. Sunday's game marked the first time in his three-year career he's been forced to sit and watch.
Mike Tomlin said last Tuesday he wanted to see how Burns smiled in the face of adversity. He then generated some of that of his own by benching Burns.
Burns can be better. He is, after all, still just 23.
But it was a direct reminder from the head coach that blowing assignments won't be tolerated any longer. The Steelers have other options. And if Burns doesn't show improvement, he won't be part of the picture any longer.
• The Steelers have now allowed 324, 275 and 237 yards in their past three games. That's an average of 278.7 yards per game.
That's winning defense. And not surprisingly, the Steelers have won all three of those games.
The Ravens -- who are up next -- gained 451 yards in Week 4 against the Steelers, so we'll get a chance to see if the defense can continue this or if it's just a blip on the radar.
• If not for a first quarter sack of Ben Roethlisberger, you wouldn't have known Myles Garrett played in this game.
Alejandro Villanueva shut him down beyond that.
Villanueva is playing at a very high level right now. In fact, the line as a whole is playing really well.
Once they figured out how the Browns were attacking, they dominated the game. Even with Matt Feiler at right tackle in place of injured Marcus Gilbert.
• I'm honestly not sure how NFL players don't know the rules for a free kick. I do know the coaching staff has gone over those things with the players.
Perhaps it was a heat-of-the-moment mistake. But I'm pretty sure I'd remind those guys of the rules before they went out to field the free kick.
• Jaylen Samuels got some playing time late in this one thanks to a fumble by Stevan Ridley and looked good, gaining 17 yards on four carries in his first NFL action.
Samuels has been doing a lot of watching in the early part of this season, playing only on special teams a few times.
So he was hungry when he got on the field.
Burns should take note of that. It's how he needs to respond to his benching.
• Stephon Tuitt was very disruptive in this game, recording seven tackles, a sack, a tackle for a loss and two quarterback hits.
Sacks tend to come in bunches. And if Tuitt can get going, the Steelers' defense could turn into a unit that is a big reason why this team wins week in and week out.
That's a big, powerful man who can be every bit as disruptive as Cam Heyward.
• Hilton is the unsung hero of this defense. All he does is make plays.
It's amazing a player with his nose for the football wasn't drafted. It doesn't matter how big he is -- or isn't -- he's just a football player.
The other thing about Hilton is that he's always got a smile on his face. He just gets so much joy out of playing the game.
It's because of players like Hilton -- and there are a bunch of them in this locker room -- that I always laugh when someone calls the Steelers "unlikable." If you can't like a guy like Hilton, you can't like anyone.
• James Conner is playing with such great confidence right now. It will be interesting to see how he does next week against the Ravens, who limited him to 19 yards on nine carries and three catches for 25 yards a month ago for his worst game of the season.
The key will be Roethlisberger making enough plays to allow Conner to continue to run the ball. As we saw Sunday, he's a running back that wears on opponents.
About midway through the fourth quarter in this game, the Browns were tired of tackling Conner.
• Sunday's win by the Steelers and loss by the Ravens made next week's game a little less "must-win" for the Steelers.
Even if the Steelers were to be swept by the Ravens this season, it wouldn't be the end of the world. The Steelers would still be ahead of Baltimore in the standings.
Obviously, it wouldn't be ideal, but because of their tie in the opener against the Browns, the head-to-head tiebreaker probably won't come into play.
As for Cincinnati, which improved to 5-3 with its win over Tampa Bay Sunday, it has problems and they are great.
The Bengals allowed 576 yards in their 37-34 win over the Bucs and have now given up 1,127 in their past two games. The Steelers had 481 yards against them the week before that.
Cincinnati is now on pace to allow 7,164 yards, which would be a league record. Does that sound like a team that's going to be in this for the long haul?
No, it's the Steelers and Ravens who will be fighting it out for the AFC North this season. A win next week by the Steelers would put them a game-and-a-half ahead.
• When you see Roethlisberger get bent up like he did on his second quarterback sneak, you realize why it wasn't a regular part of the team's offense when Todd Haley was offensive coordinator.
But don't think for a second the fact the Steelers ran three quarterback sneaks in two games against the Browns this season didn't happen for a reason.
Haley wasn't popular with many of the offensive coaches who worked under him. And he's not popular in Cleveland right now, either.
In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if he's fired at some point this week. If Hue Jackson is going down -- and he is -- he might as well go down running his own plays, for what that will be worth.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Browns, Heinz Field, Oct. 28, 2018 - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS