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By Kathy Wray Coleman, editor, associated publisher
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania-The Cleveland Browns trounced the Steelers 48-37 Sunday night at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh for the AFC wild card game and advanced to play the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, Jan. 17 at 3:05 pm EST.
It was first time the Browns have played in the playoffs since 2002, and their first win in a post season game since the 1994 season, and it was their first win in Pittsburgh since 2003.
While a few cheered in the streets of downtown Cleveland after the win, and tooted car horns, a 10 pm statewide nightly curfew instituted by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in response to the coronavirus pandemic kept most Browns fans at home other than a small crowd that gathered at bars and restaurants primarily in the city's warehouse district during the game.
Only 2,500 fans were allowed into the football stadium where the game was held in Pittsburgh because of coronavirus concerns, mainly family members and friends of Steelers players.
Acting Browns head coach Mike Priefer, the special teams coordinator for the Browns, gave credit to his team and head coach Kevin Stefanski, and said during a post game press conference that "the foundation has been set, we all know it was Kevin's game."
He said the team victory over the Steelers was simply "awesome."
Stefanski, 38, sat out of the game after testing positive for COVID-19
Before Sunday night's game, the Browns had mounted a 11-5 record after beating Pittsburgh 24-22 at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland last Sunday to clinch one of three wild-card playoffs spots.
First in the AFC North, the Steelers headed into Sunday's playoffs with confidence, and as the favorite, the first time since 2017 that they had made the playoffs.
The Browns took a 7-0 lead just 14 seconds into the game after Karl Joseph recovered a scrambled ball in the end zone for a touch down, followed by an extra point.
M.J. Stewart Jr . intercepted a pass early on by by Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who had four game interceptions overall, and Browns Quarterback Baker Mayfield followed up with a 40 yard touch down to Jarvis Landry.
Kareem Hunt had a good game too, racking up a pair of touch downs as the Browns would lead over the Steelers 28-0 at the end of the first quarter only to go up 35-7 on a subsequent play by Mayfield to Austin Hooper
And as the Steelers began closing the gap, a perfected screenplay by Mayfield to Cleveland's Nick Chubb for a 41 yard touchdown made the score 42-23.
Leading 45-29 near the end of the fourth, Cleveland sanctioned the victory by intercepting Roethlisberger for the fourth time with just over three minutes to play.
Mayfield was 21 of 34 for 263 yards, three touch downs and no interceptions.
Roethlisberger finished the game with 47-for-68 for 501 yards, four touchdowns and four interceptions.
A Heisman Trophy winner drafted by the Browns first overall in the 2018 NFL draft, Mayfield, 25, said he expects the Browns to advance further in the playoffs and called Sunday night's win a huge win, and "a stepping stone."
Coming into Sunday night's match-up with the Steelers, the Browns were missing star cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Kevin Johnson, who missed their second consecutive game due to COVID-19.
In addition to Stefanski, whom the Browns hired this time last year as head coach after firing Freddie Kitchens, two other members of the Browns coaching staff also sat out of Sunday's game because they tested positive for coronavirus.
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