Steelers give up winning drive to Browns rookie QB

CLEVELAND — What the Cleveland Browns did on their final drive Sunday was what the Pittsburgh Steelers intended when they also had the ball inside the two-minute warning.

Dustin Hopkins’ 34-yard field goal with 2 seconds remaining might have sent the Steelers to a 13-10 defeat at Cleveland Browns Stadium, but seeds for the loss were planted before the Browns pieced together their winning march.

Had the Steelers not gone three-and-out on their previous possession — each play a Kenny Pickett incompletion — perhaps they would be celebrating a seventh one-score win of the season rather than dealing with a loss that dropped them to 6-4 and into third place in the AFC North.

Instead, despite blowing a 10-0 point halftime lead, the Browns walked off with a 7-3 record to stay a half-game behind Baltimore in the division race.

“It was right where we wanted it,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said. “We felt comfortable at the end of the game. It just didn’t happen.”

With the score tied 10-10, the Steelers took possession at their 30 with 1:42 remaining and one timeout at their disposal. Pickett attempted three passes. All three hit the ground, and the Steelers punted the ball back, with the Browns taking over at their 35 with 1:18 to play.

Rookie quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson, making his second career start, completed all four of his pass attempts while leading a march that put Hopkins in position to kick the winning field goal.

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It was the kind of drive the Steelers envisioned twice in the final quarter after they rallied from a 10-0 deficit on Jaylen Warren’s 74-yard touchdown run on the second play of the third quarter and Chris Boswell’s 28-yard field goal with 7:40 to play.

“Move down the field and put ourselves in field-goal position,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “When you’re unsuccessful, man, there is a lot of latitude in terms of judgment, play selection, etc. We stand by what we did.”

An offense held to zero points and 64 yards in the first half was invigorated by Warren’s burst to the end zone that cut the deficit to 10-7. Warren finished with 129 yards rushing on just nine attempts, putting him over the century mark for the second week in a row. Najee Harris added 35 yards rushing, yet neither running back touched the ball on that defining series.

“In a two-minute situation like that, obviously you want to throw it,” said Pickett, who completed 15 of 28 attempts for just 106 yards. “There are always times with a stoppage of clock you can probably pop a draw, pop a run to start back up. But in that moment, no.”

It was the same result when the Steelers took over at their 48 with 5:47 remaining. Pickett completed a 12-yard pass to George Pickens on the first play, but the Steelers never got any closer than the Browns 40 and punted the ball back with 3:35 left.

“We felt very confident in our offense to capitalize on the short field to win the game,” said Freiermuth, who had one catch for 7 yards after missing five games with a hamstring injury. “We just didn’t execute today.”

Frustrations were evident on the final drive when a miscommunication between Pickett and wide receiver Diontae Johnson led to one incompletion. Johnson, held to two catches for 16 yards, had to be calmed down by Tomlin on the sideline before the fourth quarter. He declined to speak with reporters after the game.

Tomlin deflected blame from Pickett, preferring to credit the Browns’ top-ranked defense. Center Mason Cole also defended the play-calling.

“You’ve got to look downfield, and we have to look at our pass game,” he said. “Hindsight is always 20-20. Do we wish we handed the ball off and ripped off a 30-yard run? Of course, but that didn’t happen.”

The Browns got a touchdown on their opening possession and a field goal from Hopkins with 5 seconds left before halftime to take a 10-0 lead. A Steelers defense that played without Minkah Fitzpatrick and has three other starters on injured reserve got significant snaps from linebacker Mykal Walker and safety Trenton Thompson.

Behind Elandon Roberts, who had 15 tackles, the patchwork group held the Browns to 58 yards on their first six possessions of the second half. Thompson-Robinson, however, got 48 on the final drive, which was enough to set the stage for Hopkins’ winning kick.

It was an unfamiliar ending for the Steelers, who had been 6-0 in one-score decisions.

And, according to Harris, it’s a close-to-the-vest blueprint that can’t continue.

“You can do one of two things,” he said. “You can look at the record and say, ‘OK, we’re still good right now’ or you can look at the record and say, ‘If we keep playing this way, how long is that (stuff) going to last?’

“I look at it like how long is that (stuff) going to last?”

Translation: The Steelers need more from an offense than was ranked No. 28 entering the game.

“Winning like how we did is not going to get us going anywhere,” Harris said. “Yes, we got a good record. … We can fix it. I’m just really tired of this (stuff).”