Mike Tomlin walked into the Steelers' interview room at Heinz Field on his way to his car as one of his players was fielding questions from the assembled media. He looked up at the dais to see who was talking, and a smile formed across his face. Then, after circling around the back of the room, Tomlin gave another smile and a shake of his head as he walked out the door.
He had been listening to rookie quarterback Devlin 'Duck' Hodges field question after question. And even he has to be a bit surprised by the things Hodges and the no-name offense is accomplishing.
The latest was a 20-13 win here Sunday over the Browns that essentially shattered Cleveland's playoff hopes while keeping those of the Steelers very much alive. And it was Hodges, making his second start of the season who was the catalyst this week, throwing for 212 yards and a touchdown, outdueling Baker Mayfield, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft.
"I thought he played his tail off," Tomlin said of Hodges with a grin. "Without overanalyzing it, just a general synopsis, I thought he played his tail off."
Of course, earlier, Tomlin had joked -- as he had last Tuesday -- that Hodges didn't kill the Steelers. No, in this case, he killed the Browns.
It's not pretty. It's not high-flying. But the Steelers keep finding ways to win. The victory was the Steelers' sixth in their past seven games and avenged that only loss -- a 21-7 defeat three weeks ago at the hands of the Browns in Cleveland.
Mason Rudolph started that game, throwing four interceptions. But Tomlin turned things over to Hodges, an undrafted rookie out of Samford, for this game and the Steelers' offense responded by scoring multiple touchdowns in a game for the first time in their past five outings.
Hodges didn't do it alone and the Steelers certainly didn't do it quickly. While Mayfield was leaning heavily on his star-studded lineup to lead the Browns to a 10-0 lead in the first half, it looked like the Steelers were going to be in for a long day.
But the Browns made a crucial mistake when Sheldon Richardson, who had been very outspoken regarding the Steelers and what he felt about them last week, jumped offside on a third-and-9 play at the Pittsburgh 18.
To that point midway the second quarter, the Steelers had gained nine total yards. But seeing Richardson jump offside, receiver James Washington took off down the sideline.
"I looked down the line," Washington said. "I wasn’t sure at first, but I saw him cross the ball and I took off. Sure enough, Duck threw it."
He did and it turned into a 31-yard gain that seemed to spark the Steelers' offense the rest of the way.
"Any time you can get the defense to jump offsides, it's a free play," Hodges said. "So depending on situations, we try to take advantage of it. Going deep is kind of the goal."
To that point, the Browns had outgained the Steelers 147-9. From that point on, it was the Steelers outgaining Cleveland, 314-132.
The play seemed to give the coaching staff the idea it could open things up a little more as it backed off the Browns' defenders — who to that point were playing with 10 men near the line of scrimmage — the idea Hodges would take some shots.
"Yeah, it was kind of like that," Washington said. "And they were getting a lot of pressure, so we had to get the ball out quick."
That play led to the Steelers' first points of the game, as Chris Boswell kicked a 39-yard field goal to trim the lead to 10-3.
The defense then forced a three-and-out and Hodges went back to work again. With 1:48 remaining in the half, Hodges connected on back-to-back passes to Washington and Deon Cain for a first down to the Pittsburgh 42.
At that point, why not go for points?
After missing a deep shot to Diontae Johnson, Hodges connected with Tevin Jones for a 28-yard pass down the middle of the field to the Cleveland 30.
Then, he went back to Washington again, who did this as captured by our Matt Sunday:
The 30-yard touchdown pass, with corner T.J. Carrie interfering with him, knotted the game at 10-10, and with the Steelers getting the ball to open the second half, gave them the opening they needed.
"We weren’t too fired up. We were like, ‘OK, we’ve got it back to square one,’" guard David DeCastro said. "Once we got that second score, it was a big lift."
The Steelers had weathered the storm and were bringing some thunder and lightning of their own.
Again it was Hodges and Washington providing the lightning, as that duo completed a 44-yard bomb down the sideline to the Cleveland 15 to set up Benny Snell, the thunder, for a 1-yard touchdown run, the first of the rookie's career.
"I think the one at the end of the half was huge because we tied it up there," Hodges said. "Coming out after halftime, getting another good drive, I mean, just good to get the lead established. Well, not an established lead, to get momentum, to keep momentum coming in the second half."
The Browns tried to answer, but the Steelers' defense, playing with its first lead, had different plans.
Bud Dupree beat a double team and sacked Mayfield at the Cleveland 46, with Cam Heyward recovering the loose ball to set the offense up well. That led to a second Boswell field goal, this one from 29 yards out for a 20-10 lead that might as well have been 40-10.
Though the Browns trimmed it to 20-13 on an Austin Seibert field goal with 7:34 remaining, the Steelers closed out the game, overcoming a rare miscue from Hodges, who was intercepted on the first play of their next possession.
The Browns couldn't move the ball following the interception, but Seibert pooch-punted the ball inside the Pittsburgh 1 with tight end Stephen Carlson downing it.
"The goal is to always get a first down when you’re backed up," said center B.J. Finney, making his second start in a row in place of suspended Maurkice Pouncey.
Snell and the offensive line took care of that.
An 11-yard run out of their own end zone.
"It was huge," said guard Ramon Foster. "When you’re backed up like that, our coaches usually say, ‘Get two first downs.’ It’s huge for us to get those first downs. Benny has been huge for us and so has Jaylen (Samuels). Our running backs corps, as young as they are, have been really good."
"We blocked it well and he hit it hard and got the first down," Finney said.
From there, the Steelers ground the clock, as Snell and Samuels kept it moving, forcing the Browns to use their timeouts. Playing without leading rusher James Conner, the Steelers rushed for 124 yards on 32 carries, while Washington produced a career-high 111 yards on four receptions with JuJu Smith-Schuster missing his second consecutive game with a knee injury.
"We just had to put a stake in the ground," said Foster. "We did what we do well and that was a big part of getting our offense going. You’ve got to say, ‘Screw it. Run this, do this and beat your man one on one.’"
But you also have to take advantage of those opportunities.
And the Steelers and Hodges did that.
"We stuck to the game plan," Hodges said. "We had to tweak it a bit based on what we thought they were going to do. But, when you have a defense like ours, you know they're going to make plays. They start making plays, and we started getting into the groove, and we got the win."
Joe Haden made sure of that, picking off Mayfield's last-ditch effort to get the Browns on the board to seal the win in the closing seconds.
"It feels good to win," said Tomlin. "But it definitely feels good to win when you are faced with adversity in terms of the people available to you. There's just less margin for error. Not that we feel we are incapable, we just realize we have to play closer to optimum level. They did what they needed to."
And the Browns did not.
Both teams talked openly about the game having a playoff-like atmosphere before the week, which would keep things from turning ugly as it did at the end of the Browns' win in Cleveland three weeks ago.
That was exactly what happened. And the Steelers, despite their relative youth and inexperience at the offensive skill positions, made the plays.
"Our guys got a dose of what playoff atmosphere was like," said Browns head coach Freddie Kitchens. "We need to continue to get better so we respond better the next time out."
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
THE NOTES
• Snell finished with 63 yards on 16 carries.
• Mayfield left briefly at the end of the first half with what Kitchens said was a bruised hand after hitting it on Dupree's helmet.
• Kerrith Whyte had a 34-yard kick return for the Steelers that was their longest of the season.
• Devin Bush led the Steelers with seven tackles.
• Dupree had 1.5 sacks to push his career season-high to 8.5.
• T.J. Watt also recorded a sack, giving him an AFC-high 12.5. Watt has recorded at least half a sack in eight consecutive games, the longest such streak in the NFL.
• The Steelers had two takeaways in the game, giving them 30. That's the most in Tomlin's tenure through 12 games.
• The Steelers now lead the all-time series against the Browns 76-59-1 and have not been swept by Cleveland since 1988. The Browns have not won in Pittsburgh since 2003.
• Hodges became the first undrafted rookie to win his first two NFL starts since Ed Rubbert, a replacement player, did so in the strike season of 1987 for the Redskins.
• Boswell has made 23 of 25 field goal attempts this season (92 percent), with one miss coming from 54 yards and the other coming on a mishandled snap.
THE INJURIES
• James Conner (shoulder, DNP)
• JuJu Smith-Schuster (DNP)
• Artie Burns (knee, DNP)
THE SCHEDULE
The Steelers (7-5) head on the road next week to face the Arizona Cardinals (3-8-1). They will hold meetings Monday with an open locker room session at 1:15 p.m. I'll have all the coverage from them all.
THE COVERAGE
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MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Browns, Heinz Field, Dec. 1, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS