Steelers pull away from Browns with a complete second half

Brian Batko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Oct 12, 2025

Published in Football

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PITTSBURGH — Aaron Rodgers found his groove, DK Metcalf was the most magnificent player on the field again, and the Pittsburgh Steelers left no doubt in Sunday’s 23-9 rout of the Cleveland Browns at Acrisure Stadium.

The Steelers now have won 22 of the past 23 at home against their little brother, and this was the first of their four wins this season in which they actually slammed the door shut to get it done. They had to sweat it out against the New York Jets, New England Patriots and Minnesota Vikings in one-possession games, but moving to 4-1 was much easier coming out of their off week.

Rodgers threw for 235 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers on 21-of-30 passing and made great use of his two most physically impressive targets. He hit Metcalf four times for 95 yards, including a fourth-quarter touchdown that was the prettiest throw of the day by Rodgers, a vintage dart from 25 yards out into the end zone. Washington was getting his, too, catching three passes for a career-high 62 yards, and Connor Heyward made a cameo with a superb 12-yard touchdown grab midway through the third quarter as Rodgers scrambled to buy time.

The other side of the ball was even more lopsided, as the Browns (1-5) sent rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel into the lion’s den and watched him get eaten alive by a Steelers defense that was healthy, rested and ready. They shut down the run game, then sacked Gabriel six times, hit him 14 times, batted a couple passes, tipped a few more and nearly had multiple interceptions.

It was over when

Fans started chanting “Cleveland [stinks]!” as the clock ticked under four minutes to go, a familiar refrain here when the Steelers can enjoy a true homefield advantage against their usual punching bag.

Player of the game

Metcalf. Even in a week when the Steelers were missing their No. 2 receiver Calvin Austin III, yet another opponent couldn’t manage to take Metcalf out of the game and make the other guys beat them. Little was needed from the likes of Scotty Miller, Roman Wilson and Ben Skowronek, as Metcalf still gave the offense the spark it needed. He could’ve had a long touchdown catch before the one he did score on, but Rodgers underthrew him. Honorable mention also goes to Jalen Ramsey, who not only played after being removed from the injury report Saturday — he brought down Gabriel twice and looked no worse for the hamstring he tweaked against the Vikings in Dublin. Not bad for the biggest non-Rodgers acquisitions of the Steelers offseason.

Trending up

Derrick Harmon. For as much Jaxson Dart envy as some faction of the Steelers fan base seems to have with each passing week the Giants’ rookie quarterback makes some smooth plays, the guy the Steelers picked in the first round just keeps playing ball. And Harmon has been a wrecking ball. He’s only played three games after suffering a knee injury in the preseason finale, but Harmon has made his presence felt with a splash play in each one. First it was his sack against the Patriots, then his tipped pass that led to an interception in Dublin, and Sunday he added another sack to his stat line when he collapsed the pocket on his college teammate Gabriel and finished the play. It’s fair to say Harmon’s had even more of an immediate impact on this defense than expected.

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Jabrill Peppers. As much as he helped Week 3 at New England, Peppers was given a helmet over fellow safety Chuck Clark for this one and almost immediately hurt his cause. His penalty negating a great return by rookie Ke’Shawn Williams was a bit of a ticky-tack call for an illegal block in the back. But when Peppers subbed in for Ramsey on defense, he simply grabbed the Browns pass-catcher he was covering and got flagged for illegal hands to the face. With his coverage chops already very much in question, perhaps Peppers can settle into a de-facto captain role for the special teams if Miles Killebrew’s scary-looking knee injury is season-ending.

Up next

A quick turnaround for a second consecutive AFC North matchup, this one against the other Ohio team Thursday night in Cincinnati.

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