Nov 24, 2013 5 min read

CLEVELAND – With the wind blowing and gusting up to 30 miles per hour on a 20-degree day, it didn’t seem like much of an afternoon to run a no-huddle offense.

After all, most of the players might prefer to huddle together for warmth.

But the suddenly red-hot Steelers weren’t about to change what had worked so well last week at home against Detroit.

The Steelers stuck with the no-huddle and made it work, as Ben Roethlisberger threw a pair of touchdown passes and the defense had its most productive day of the season in a 27-11 thrashing of the Cleveland Browns.

The victory was Pittsburgh’s fifth in its last seven games and improved its record to 5-6. The Steelers moved into a six-way tie for the final playoff spot in the AFC with five games remaining.

“Nice accomplishment, but not a lot of time to admire our work,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin.

The reason why is another key matchup awaits Thursday in Baltimore, which is also at 5-6.

“We are playing winning football,” said Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, who had a sack and two forced fumbles. “What that means Thursday, we’ll see.”

The Steelers set season highs for sacks (5) and takeaways (4). In addition to Polamalu, cornerback William Gay also had a big game, adding a sack that forced a fumble and knocked Cleveland quarterback Jason Campbell out of the game in the third quarter, then intercepting backup Brandon Weedon and returning it for a fourth-quarter touchdown that put Pittsburgh ahead 27-3.

“We just tried to play great defense; a great team effort,” said Gay.

With the score tied at 3-3 late in the first half, the Steelers forced a Cleveland punt that Antonio Brown returned 14 yards to the Pittsburgh 48-yard line.

Two plays later, Roethlisberger, who had been cautious to that point and throwing a lot of short passes, dropped back and heaved a bomb down the sideline to Brown, who was working against Cleveland cornerback Joe Haden.

Brown got behind Haden, but had to wait on the pass, which was knocked down by the wind. He still found a way to hold onto the 41-yard TD pass for a 10-3 lead.

“It was actually called to get Jerricho (Cotchery) the ball because of the coverage they gave us,” said Roethlisberger, who passed for 217 yards and was not sacked for the first time all season.

“I peeked outside to AB and he had a step on him, so I let it fly and he made a great play.”

With the first half coming to an end, Cleveland was driving at midfield when Polamalu simply took the ball away from running back Chris Ogbaonnaya at the Pittsburgh 46.

That set up a 32-yard field goal by Shaun Suisham as the Steelers took a 13-3 lead that might as well been 30-3. After gaining 73 yards on its first two possessions, Cleveland gained just 124 yards on its next nine possessions.

Gay dealt the Browns the next big blow early in the third quarter, coming off the corner to hit Campbell from behind on a blitz. The ball squirted loose and safety Will Allen picked it up and returned it 49 yards to the Cleveland 4.

Campbell, who earlier injured his ribs on a hit from linebacker Jason Worilds, suffered a concussion and did not return. He was replaced by Weedon.

The Browns believe Gay hit Campbell in the head.

“I talked to the officials about that,” said Cleveland head coach Rob Chudzinski. “I felt he was hit on the head. They didn’t feel that way.”

Roethlisberger threw a 4-yard TD pass to Emmanuel Sanders to push the Steelers’ lead to 20-3, and the Steelers were content to run the ball and control the clock.

Gay finished off the Browns with a 21-yard interception return for a score with about four minutes remaining in the game. It was Pittsburgh’s first return for a score this season.

“We knew it was going to be a tough day against a good defensive front,” said Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell, who had 80 rushing yards. “But our defense did a good job, gave us a short field on one play and scored a touchdown on another. That made it a lot easier for our offense.”

Cleveland’s Josh Gordon set a franchise record with 237 receiving yards and tied Ozzie Newsome’s team record with 14 receptions. … Brown finished with six catches for 92 yards, giving him 80 receptions for the season. He’s the fourth Steelers player – joining John Stallworth, Yancey Thigpen and Hines Ward – to have 80 catches in a season. … Worilds had a team-high six quarterback pressures. … Al Woods had his first two career sacks. Woods replaced nose tackle Steve McLendon, who left in the first half with an ankle injury. … Cornerback Curtis Brown was injured covering a punt in the third quarter.