The Steelers walked out of Cleveland with a 27-6 win, first place in the AFC North, and 200 rushing yards in their pocket. But Mike McCarthy still had one sequence stuck in his head.
It came at the Browns’ 2-yard line, where Pittsburgh had already done the hard part. The Steelers had driven 86 yards in 13 plays, with Jaylen Warren’s 51-yard run providing the biggest spark.
Rico Dowdle had also punched in a 9-yard touchdown earlier, and the run game was clearly carrying the offense. Then Pittsburgh reached first-and-goal and went away from it.
Aaron Rodgers threw incomplete to DK Metcalf on first down, then did it again on second down. Warren got the ball on third-and-goal, but Cleveland was ready by then and stopped him at the line. Chris Boswell’s 20-yard field goal was all Pittsburgh got from the series.
Afterward, McCarthy didn’t hide his frustration.
“That series there, I wish I could have those three plays back,” McCarthy said after the game. “Those are things that you go back and you look at. But yeah, I wish I had that sequence back.”
The Steelers’ red-zone issues have been hanging around for a while. They went just 1-for-4 inside the 20 against New Orleans a week earlier.
Against Cleveland, they were better overall, finishing with touchdowns on three of five red-zone trips. But that first miss felt less like a talent issue and more like an offense stepping away from what was working.
Pittsburgh had already shown it could push the Browns around on the ground. Warren finished with 143 yards on 17 carries, and the Steelers as a team piled up 200 rushing yards. That made the choice to open the goal-line series with two straight passes stand out even more.
There is some nuance here, though. Not every goal-line throw has to be a pure pass call.
Some of Pittsburgh’s looks to Metcalf can begin as runs with an alert built in for Rodgers to throw if the defense shows the right look. Without knowing every check and pre-snap instruction, the entire sequence can’t be pinned on McCarthy alone.
Still, the bigger issue was how the three plays fit together. Pittsburgh had just proven it could move Cleveland on the ground, and after two passes, the third down arrived with the Browns able to crowd every inch of the interior.
If Rodgers saw a favorable one-on-one matchup for Metcalf on first down, taking the shot made sense. But going right back to another pass is where the series lost its shape.
The passing game didn’t exactly demand more trust, either. Rodgers finished 13 of 25 for 172 yards with no touchdown passes and one interception. Metcalf had one catch on six targets for four yards.
For now, the Steelers can absorb the lesson because the scoreboard gave them room. That won’t be the case after the bye, when they head to Cincinnati on Nov.
- Pittsburgh now knows the run game can control a game.
The challenge for McCarthy is making sure the play sheet doesn’t get in the way when that strength gets them to the goal line.
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