After facing some of NFL's worst running teams, Steelers brace for top-ranked Browns

When it comes to stopping the run, few teams have done it better this season than the Pittsburgh Steelers.

They held Saquon Barkley to six yards on 15 carries. They gave up 23 yards to David Johnson and, aside from a 74-yard burst courtesy of a missed tackle, limited Miles Sanders to six yards on 10 attempts.

The Denver Broncos are the only team to reach triple figures on the Steelers, and they barely got there at 104.

An examination of those opponents, however, leads to a chicken-or-egg question: Are the Steelers that good or have the running games they’ve stopped been that bad?

Not one of the Steelers’ four opponents, who have a combined 3-15-1 record, occupies the top half of the league’s rushing leader board. The Eagles, at No. 17, easily are the best of a bunch that includes three of the NFL’s five least productive ground units — Broncos (No. 29), Texans (No. 30) and Giants (No. 32) – in terms of yards per game.

Suffice it to say, the same can’t be said of the Cleveland Browns. Armed with the NFL’s top-ranked running attack at 188.4 yards per game, the Browns will be a litmus test for the Steelers’ No. 2 rush defense when the teams meet Sunday at Heinz Field.

“The strength of pack,” coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday, “is in the pack.”

Tomlin was talking about the Browns offense, but his words could apply specifically to the running game. Before he injured his MCL in the first quarter against Dallas, Nick Chubb had rushed for 335 yards and averaged 5.9 yards per carry. Kareem Hunt, a former rushing champion as a rookie with Kansas City, has 347 yards and averages 5.0 yards per touch. Undrafted free agent D’Ernest Johnson had a game-high 95 yards rushing after Chubb’s injury against the Cowboys.

Among those blocking for that group are a pair of first round picks: veteran Jack Conklin at right tackle and rookie Jedrick Wills at left tackle.

“Those other teams we played don’t have Chubb and Hunt and the quality front (of Conklin and Wills),” Tomlin said. “They have quality players. They have quality schematics. Kevin Stefanski has been around solid run games all of his career.”

Stefanski, the Browns first-year head coach, spent the previous 14 seasons as an offensive assistant with Minnesota, and that run included Adrian Peterson’s decade with the Vikings.

The Browns hardly skipped a beat when Chubb, who rushed for 1,494 yards last season, landed on injured reserve, which will keep him from suiting up against the Steelers. The Browns rushed for 307 yards against the Cowboys.

Last week, facing an Indianapolis Colts defense that was ranked No. 2 against the run and has since dropped a spot behind the Steelers, the Browns put up 124 yards on the ground. Hunt led the way with 72 yards on 20 carries. Johnson added 32 yards as the Browns possessed the ball for nearly 35 minutes.

“Without Nick, it’s never going to be one man that replaces him,” Stefanski told Pittsburgh reporters Wednesday. “We feel good about the running back room and know it’s never going to be a one-man show.”

The same could be said for the Browns offensive line. Conklin, a former first-team All-Pro, was signed in free agency, and Wills was taken No. 10 overall this year to provide continuity and consistency at left tackle, something the Browns have lacked since Joe Thomas’ retirement in 2017.

“Their tackles have played big for them,” defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said. “They are mean, nasty and finish plays.”

The interior includes two-time Pro Bowl guard Joel Bitonio and former Steelers swingman Chris Hubbard, who may start at guard this weekend because of injury to Wyatt Teller.

“Their offensive line is doing a good job for them,” defensive coordinator Keith Butler said. “They do a good job of playing together. You rarely see them make any mistakes in terms of missing somebody to turn or somebody loose or anything like that. They don’t do that. They do a good job of getting a hat on a hat and running plays and cutting off people on the backside. They do a really good job of that. As a consequence, their running game has been really good.”