The Cleveland Browns are one of the first teams and have one of the best with Nick Chubb. The Steelers had the luxury of facing the Browns sans Chubb in their first game of Week 6. He has averaged 5.6 yards per try this season, the best of his three-year career. Take the 47-yard touchdown, in which the Steelers had several missed attacks; Pittsburgh kept Chubbs relatively controlled with 61 yards on the ground.
But after Sunday’s game, the Steelers have a new plan for the game: quarterback Baker Mayfield escapes his pocket and takes off. In his previous four games against Pittsburgh, Mayfield had a total of 4 rushing for 17 yards. This week, he had six rushes for 44 yards – three on his left and one on his right.
Mayfield, who had more yards on the ground than Kareem Hunt, had a great 28-yard run in Steelers territory, finally setting them up to get a score. And, of course, the critical conversion of the third descent with less than a minute to go. His three-yard run allowed the Browns to run the clock to win.
“I thought we had to do a better job of containing Mayfield,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said at his weekly press conference. “It simply came to our notice then. Not only the big race, like the big race of the second half of the third quarter that produced a touchdown drive, but also the conversion versions, the third downhill ones when moving and converting. We know he is capable of it. Therefore, our hurry must be better, not only in terms of pressure, but also to contain it, minimizing this component of the game. “