Aaron Rodgers threw for 172 yards, didn't throw a touchdown, and put one right into Denzel Ward's hands in the third quarter. The Steelers won by 21 anyway.

That's the story of Sunday's 27-6 beatdown of Cleveland, and it might be the most encouraging thing Pittsburgh's shown all year. The Steelers are 6-2 — alone in first place in the AFC North heading into the bye — and they got there by doing something they couldn't pull off a month ago: they made the quarterback optional. Jaylen Warren and Rico Dowdle ran for 199 of the team's 200 rushing yards, the defense sacked Deshaun Watson eight times, and the Browns never sniffed the end zone. Rodgers hit a couple of play-action shots and then got to watch Mason Rudolph mop up. For a 42-year-old in his final season, that's about as relaxing as a Sunday gets.

Think back to the first meeting. Week 4, Thursday night in Cleveland, Rodgers threw it 40 times for 299 yards and three touchdowns, got sacked five times, threw two picks, and lost 27-24 on a 56-yard Andre Szmyt field goal. That's what it looks like when Pittsburgh asks him to win a shootout. Sunday was what it looks like when they don't.

The Run Game Was Plan A

Mike McCarthy didn't dress it up afterward.

We wanted to run the ball. It was a focal point today.

You could tell from the jump. Pittsburgh's first touchdown drive went five plays and 45 yards, and Dowdle sliced through Cleveland's defense like it was Swiss cheese before walking in from 9 yards out. By the end of the first quarter, the Steelers had 135 yards of offense. The Browns had minus-1.

Warren was the headliner, though. He went for 143 yards on 17 carries, tying his career high on his 28th birthday, including a 51-yard run on third-and-13. He's now at 704 rushing yards (seventh in the NFL) and 998 yards from scrimmage (second). Rodgers said Warren's "put himself in all the conversations," and I'm not going to be the one to argue with him.

What I loved most was how they did it. Cleveland's front is built to get upfield. Jared Verse spent the week cashing some pretty big checks:

I’m not worried about Cam. I’m not worried about their O-line. I’m not worried about nobody on their team. We’re out there to dominate. We’re about to make Pittsburgh ours on Sunday.

So the Steelers let that aggression work against them. Dowdle's 15-yarder, Warren's 51-yarder, and Warren's 23-yard run to kick off the two-minute drive before halftime were all trap plays, per Fantasy Points Data's charting. You let the aggressive guy come, you kick him out from the side, and the hole he just left is where your back goes. Mix in inside zone and duo out of heavy personnel, and the Browns spent the whole afternoon guessing wrong. Pittsburgh's 0.34 EPA per rush was the best mark of any offense in Week 8. They had six runs of 10-plus yards. Cleveland had zero.

None of that happens without the guys up front, and this line hasn't been the same since Week 3, when the Steelers slid Brock Hoffman in at right guard and handed right tackle to first-round rookie Max Iheanachor. Warren has four 100-yard games since that switch.

Rodgers talked about that a bit:

The line's playing with a lot of confidence.

That Browns defensive line had been playing well, too. They got flat-out manhandled. Mason Graham being out didn't help, and Verse is still looking for his first sack of the season.

Eight Sacks Without Sending the House

Pittsburgh's defensive line was wrecking this game from the opening drive. Watson took a helmet-to-helmet shot from Jaquan Brisker on the first series and had to go to the medical tent. Shedeur Sanders came in, and two plays later Harold Fannin coughed it up. Watson came back and got stripped on the next possession. The Steelers had a sack on each of Cleveland's first three drives, plus two fumble recoveries. And all that was before the Browns picked up a single first down that didn't come from a penalty.

Eight sacks from seven different players is Pittsburgh's most in a game since 2021, which, of course, also came against the Browns. T.J. Watt had two, Cam Heyward and Patrick Queen had 1.5 apiece, and Kevin Jobity Jr. got the first of his career.

What stood out to me is that the Steelers didn't need to get exotic. They blitzed on 32 percent of Watson's dropbacks, right around their normal rate, but their pressure rate jumped to 40 percent, more than 11 points above their season average. Five of the eight sacks came without a blitz, and three of them came off stunts up front. When four guys can get home on their own, you get to keep seven in coverage, and Watson had nowhere to go. Watt said it after:

We were able to pin our ears back and get after them.

Pinning your ears back is a whole lot easier when you know what's coming, and that part shouldn't get lost. Cleveland ran it 15 times for 34 yards, Quinshon Judkins managed 25 yards on 11 carries, and by the second half the Browns were a pass-only offense. They went 0-for-5 on third-and-7 or longer. Half of the sacks came in the fourth quarter, down 21, when everybody in Acrisure Stadium knew Watson was dropping back.

Those 324 passing yards look nice until you notice 197 of them came in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of hand.

Watson tried to wear it afterward:

I'm the one that's controlling the ball.

And sure, a couple of those sacks were him trying to extend plays that were already dead. But it's hard to put this on him or his receivers. A little of it's on the backs. The majority is on an offensive line that started two rookies — Spencer Fano at left tackle and Austin Barber at right guard — and just plain fell apart. Watson's now taken a league-high 33 sacks. Nobody else has more than 23.

For what it's worth, I really do like Cleveland's two young receivers. Denzel Boston and KC Concepcion are going to be problems in this division for a long time. But when I figured the Browns offense would eventually come back down to earth after two straight walk-off wins, I didn't think it'd look like this.

Where the Game Actually Got Decided

The Browns made three trips into the red zone and came away without a touchdown. They went 0-for-2 in goal-to-go and 0-for-2 on fourth down. The big one came early in the fourth, when Fannin's 37-yard catch set Cleveland up first-and-goal at the 2. Judkins lost 3, then Watson threw three straight incompletions, and that was that. On the last drive, Judkins got stuffed at the 1 with 22 seconds left, and a false start ran out the clock.

This Steelers defense hasn't allowed a second-half touchdown since Week 3.

Here's the part that should bug Steelers fans a little, though. Pittsburgh went 3-for-5 in the red zone and all three touchdowns were runs. The two empty trips were the two where they got cute. After a 13-play, 86-yard drive, the Steelers had first-and-goal at the 2 and went fade to DK Metcalf, a throwaway, then a Warren run for nothing. Field goal. Later, from the 8, they went throwaway, incompletion, 11-yard sack. Another field goal.

McCarthy admitted:

That series there, I wish I could have those three plays back.

Interestingly enough, Pittsburgh's now thrown on 10 of their 12 snaps inside the 5 this season. You've got the best rushing offense on the field, and you're throwing fades. Come on.

To McCarthy's credit, he got the one that mattered right. With five seconds left in the half and no timeouts, he passed on the chip-shot field goal and let Pat Freiermuth tush-push it in from the 1. Troy Fautanu wasn't worried:

Everyone knows what's going on. See if you can stop it.

That's the identity. Now just do it every time.

About That DK Experiment

I'll just say it: the DK experiment has failed, and failed miserably. Metcalf played 92 percent of the snaps and finished with one catch for 4 yards on six targets. He dropped a ball on third down, and later bobbled a catchable throw and popped it right into Ward's chest for the interception. He already has six drops this year, matching his total from all of 2025, and his 15.4 percent drop rate is the worst of his career. That's not what you're paying $33 million a year for.

Offensive coordinator Brian Angelichio says the team has "tremendous confidence in him." Fine. But with Michael Pittman Jr. and Roman Wilson on IR, Sunday's passing game was basically rookie Germie Bernard and Darnell Washington, who rumbled for a career-high 94 yards. That's exactly why the formula matters so much. This passing game isn't built to win shootouts right now, so it's a good thing the Steelers aren't trying to.

So, Can It Travel?

The formula sounds pretty simple: run it 30-plus times, win both lines of scrimmage, keep Rodgers in manageable downs, and let the defense eat. They've got four straight wins now, and Rodgers hasn't thrown for more than 253 yards in any of them.

The real test comes after the bye. Cincinnati sits a half game back at 5-2 and just dropped 43 on Tennessee. That rematch is November 15th on Sunday Night Football at Paycor. Remember, the Week 3 win over the Bengals was a 30-27 shootout where Rodgers had to throw for 292 yards and three scores. If Cincinnati puts up 30, Rodgers is going to have to sling it to a receiver room that can't catch right now.

Still, I trust this version a lot more than I trusted the Week 4 version. Baltimore's 4-4 and might be without Lamar Jackson for the year, Cleveland just got exposed, and the Steelers have found a way to win that doesn't need a 42-year-old to play like he's 32. McCarthy said afterward:

I think we're exactly what our record says we are.

Right now, that's a team that can run on anybody and get after anybody. In the AFC North, that usually ages pretty well.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.