This was supposed to be about the Browns finally punching the bullies in the mouth.
This was supposed to be about the Browns getting some kind of payback or retribution for Myles Garrett's suspension in 2019.
This was supposed to be when the Browns showed the world that they belong in the conversation when it comes to being a team on the rise in the AFC.
Nope. Didn't happen.
The Steelers dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball, handing the Browns a 38-7 beatdown Sunday at Heinz Field to improve their record to 5-0 for the first time since the 1978 season.
How dominant were the Steelers?
• When the Browns got the ball back with 8:03 remaining in the fourth quarter after Benny Snell had scored on a 1-yard run that ended a 9-play, 55-yard Steelers touchdown drive -- all rushing -- that made it 38-7, Cleveland had 48 yards rushing and were averaging 2.8 yards per carry.
That was 140 yards below its season average.
• Cleveland head coach Kevin Stefanski waved the white flag with 52 seconds remaining in the third quarter when he pulled quarterback Baker Mayfield after watching him get hit so many times by the Steelers that his makeup people on his Progressive Insurance commercials won't be able to fix him.
• The Steelers scored 38 points with Ben Roethlisberger throwing just 22 passes, completing 14 for 162 yards and a touchdown as the Steelers limited the Browns to one third-down conversion on 12 attempts and stopped them three times on fourth-and-1s.
"They are a good team," said Garrett. "We saw that. They were able to move the ball on us through the air on and on the ground. They really had the pick of what they wanted. They just outplayed us on defense and offense. They had our number."
The result is a 5-0 start for the Steelers and a 4-2 record for the Browns and the feeling that this really is just a two-team race for the division championship in the AFC North. The Browns, after all, have that sparkling 4-2 record, but their two losses have been by a combined 76-13 score to the Steelers and Ravens.
"We were varsity today, really kind of across the board and met a challenge against a very good team that was very hot," Mike Tomlin said following the blowout victory.
The Steelers, however, weren't concerned with any statements made.
"We're not into statements," Tomlin said. "We'll just line up and play against those that we are scheduled to play against, and they were next."
The statements were made on the football field, and they started early in the game.
After the Steelers went on a 58-yard drive that ended in a 35-yard Chris Boswell field goal to open the game, Kareem Hunt -- subbing for injured Nick Chubb -- had a two-yard gain on first down. Then, Mayfield scrambled for five yards on second down.
Facing third-and-3 from his own 28, Mayfield stared a little too long at rookie tight end Harrison Bryant. And this happened.
Just like that, with Minkah Fitzpatrick's first interception of the season, it was 10-0.
"We needed to set the tone on defense, whether it was a sack or a three-and-out," Fitzpatrick said. "We needed to set the tone and I think the pick-six on the first drive was the way to do it."
Cleveland's second offensive series wasn't much better. While Mayfield didn't throw another interception for a touchdown, the third-year quarterback, who was questionable to play in this game because of an injury to his ribs suffered last week, was sacked on third down, with Bud Dupree doing the honors.
That might have been the most gentle the Steelers were with Mayfield all day.
They hit him and harassed him into mistakes. And if it wasn't Dupree, who sacked him twice, it was Stephon Tuitt, who had a half-sack and two QB hits, or Cam Heyward or T.J. Watt pushing him to make mistakes.
Those led to a 24-0 lead, as the Steelers continued to pound away at the Browns in the trenches, winning on both sides of the ball.
James Conner scored on a 3-yard run to make it 17-0, then Cam Sutton intercepted Mayfield at midfield after the quarterback escaped a sack by Heyward and threw the ball up for grabs on third down.
That set up Roethlisberger for a 28-yard touchdown pass to James Washington on an out-and-up, with Roethlisberger freezing a pair of defenders with a pump fake, allowing Washington to walk into the end zone unmolested for a 24-0 lead.
Some of the Browns took offense to Heyward saying the Steelers wanted to inflict punishment on Mayfield earlier in the week. But they found themselves incapable of stopping it.
"Baker's a heck of a guy, but we had to go out there and fight for this team," Heyward said. "As a defense, we want to affect the quarterback, punish the quarterback. Good punishment. I didn't mean any illegal football, but it's my job to get after the quarterback.
Mission accomplished.
Mayfield did trim the lead to 24-7 with a 13-yard touchdown pass to Rashard Higgins at the end of the half. But even after the Steelers went three-and-out, giving Cleveland back the ball with 33 seconds remaining and two timeouts, the defensive front made certain the Browns had no ideas of a comeback.
It didn't end as a sack, but Mayfield was slow to get back up. And though the Browns would have the ball to open the second half, the Steelers made certain they knew there would be no letdown.
On Cleveland's opening possession of the second half, Dupree sacked Mayfield on second down. The Browns then took a delay of game penalty to push them back to their own 5 with a third-and-23.
They attempted to run a nice, safe draw with D'Ernest Johnson, but Tuitt, who had his way with former Steelers offensive lineman Chris Hubbard, starting at guard in place of injured Wyatt Teller, had different ideas.
He blew Johnson up in the backfield, forcing a fumble.
The Browns recovered the loose ball, but the field position battle would continue to favor the Steelers. Even when they didn't score, they consistently pinned the Browns back in their own territory and didn't let them out.
So, while a holding penalty on Maurkice Pouncey and pass interference call on Eric Ebron stalled the next Steelers possession, the Browns just couldn't get themselves back into the game.
Stefanski, in his first Steelers-Browns game, was so desperate to make something happen, he tried to convert a fourth-and-1 from his own 29 with 5:59 remaining in the third quarter.
Bad idea.
Heyward and Watt stacked up Hunt, the former NFL rushing leader with the Chiefs, for a 1-yard loss to turn the ball over on downs.
"We look at those just like turnovers," said Heyward.
Yes, they are. And the Browns failed on fourth down on three consecutive possessions in the second half, the final two with Mayfield on the bench. He was replaced by Case Keenum with 47 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
"I just did not want to see him get hit one more time," Stefanski said. "We went into this game knowing we had to keep him clean, and we did not do a good enough job."
The Steelers tacked on another score, this one a Chase Claypool 3-yard run, to cap off an 8-play, 28-yard touchdown drive to make it 31-7, and from there, it was only a matter of seeing if the backups for either team would do anything.
Heck, even Mason Rudolph got into the game late in place of Roethlisberger, but by then, Garrett, who had clobbered him over the head with his own helmet last season in Cleveland, had left the contest, as well.
"It was one of those weird feelings because it didn't feel like we were doing a lot on offense," said Roethlisberger. "We ended scoring 31 points on offense. I know the defense got a touchdown for us, but it never really felt like we did much."
They did enough, with Conner controlling the game with his rushing, going for 101 yards on 20 carries with a touchdown despite getting just two carries in the fourth quarter.
The numbers ended up not being gaudy, as Roethlisberger said, as the Steelers gained just 277 total yards. But much of the fourth quarter was spent playing very conservatively, sitting on a 31-point lead.
"Our bigs, this game was going to be determined by our bigs," Tomlin said. "Our bigs' ability to stop the run, our bigs' ability to protect Ben and win the line of scrimmage for us in the run game, and we talked openly about it all week. A synopsis of this game in a nutshell is our bigs, our big people on both sides of the ball really answered the challenge and played "A" football."
But the game was not without its bad points. Inside linebacker Devin Bush was lost for what appears to be the season with a torn ACL. Pouncey, who was dealing with a foot injury coming into the game, left early with the same injury. And nickel corner Mike Hilton suffered a shoulder injury.
None of that could dampen the feeling of a 5-0 start.
"We're not going to rest on being 5-0," said Heyward. "We've got to continue to get better and keep working."
