PITTSBURGH —It wasn't pretty, but the Pittsburgh Steelers churned out an effective victory to open AFC North play on Sunday, beating their oldest rivals, the Cleveland Browns , 23-9 at Acrisure Stadium.
The Pittsburgh defense stifled the Cleveland offense throughout the game, holding the Browns to 206 total yards and never letting them sniff the end zone.
The Steelers offense took a bit longer to get going, with Aaron Rodgers spreading the ball around to a number of targets as the Steelers once again used heavy personnel to try to get their rushing game going against the No. 2 run defense in the league.
Three long first-half drives all ended in Chris Boswell 's field goal, as Arthur Smith's unit just couldn't break the door down. After a Browns field goal on the final possession of the first half, the Steelers led by just six points, despite dominating in yardage and time of possession.
In the second half, they broke through, with Rodgers hitting Connor Heyward for a 12-yard touchdown pass on the first drive, a session that was aided by a Cleveland running into the kicker penalty after the Steelers failed on an early third down.
After another defensive stop, Rodgers and company broke the game open, as he hit DK Metcalf for a 25-yard touchdown to put the Steelers up three scores.
Rodgers completed 21 of 30 passes for 235 yards, along with the two touchdowns. He maintained a passer rating of 115.3. The Steelers kept the 41-year old mostly upright throughout the game. He was not sacked and was hit only three times.
Rodgers' targets were all over the place. Metcalf led all receivers with 95 yards on four catches. Running back Kenneth Gainwell had the most catches with six, but only gained 14 yards.
Darnell Washington made his biggest impact in the passing game of his season, with three catches for 62 yards, including a 36-yarder on the first play of the game.
The Steelers running game was shared between Jaylen Warren , Gainwell and Kaleb Johnson , and all players had some success. Warren had 11 carries for 52 yards (4.7 yards per carry) for the best average on the day.
The Pittsburgh defense harried Gabriel throughout. He was sacked six times, hit sixteen times, and had eight of his passes defended. The rookie finished 29 of 52 for 221 yards and had a 66.3 passer rating.
Rookie running back Quinshon Judkins was held to 36 yards on 12 carries, as the Steelers defense both harried Gabriel and stifled the ground game. Rookie tight end Harold Fannin was Gabriel's best receiver, with seven catches for 81 yards.
The Steelers improved to 4-1 and moved to two games ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North. In Week 7 , they'll go on the road to face those Bengals on a short-turnaround with a Thursday Night Football game coming up on Oct. 16.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Defense Shuts Down Browns, Steelers Win 23-9
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