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      What to Watch for in Saturday’s N.F.L. Wild-Card Games

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyWhat to Watch for in Saturday’s N.F.L. Wild-Card GamesThe first day of the expanded postseason kicks off with the Bills facing a franchise hero and the Colts, an N.F.C. West grudge match and the Washington rookie Chase Young getting his date with Tom Brady.Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers, winners of their final four regular season games, will try to keep their momentum going against the Washington Football Team’s fearsome pass rush.Credit…Grant Halverson/Getty ImagesJan. 9, 2021, 8:00 a.m. ETA weekend bulging with N.F.L. playoff football begins Saturday, when for the first time three games will be staged on the same day.The madness begins at 1:05 p.m. Eastern with an A.F.C. matchup in Orchard Park, N.Y., where about 6,700 fans, after assenting to coronavirus testing, will attend an event nearly as uncommon as a global pandemic: a Bills home playoff game.Bills legend Frank Reich returns to Buffalo as a spoiler.The second-seeded Bills will host the seventh-seeded Indianapolis Colts in the first postseason game at Bills Stadium since Dec. 28, 1996, another milestone in Buffalo’s enchanted season. But they’ll face a Colts team that’s led by Coach Frank Reich, who orchestrated one of the greatest playoff comebacks in league history when he quarterbacked the Bills to an overtime victory over the Houston Oilers after Buffalo had fallen behind by 32 points in a 1993 A.F.C. wild-card game.Credit…John Hickey/Associated PressCredit…Ron Schwane/Associated PressThis year, Reich’s Colts (11-5) had an unsettling tendency to collapse against good teams: They failed to score in the second half versus Baltimore, allowed 24 straight points in a loss to Tennessee and, in Week 16, blew a 17-point third-quarter lead at Pittsburgh. They did beat the Packers, though.In guiding the Bills (13-3) to their first A.F.C. East title since 1995, quarterback Josh Allen threw for 4,544 yards and 37 touchdowns, both franchise records. Receiver Stefon Diggs, who is questionable for Saturday’s game with an injury to an oblique muscle, led the league with 127 receptions, the sixth most in a single season, and 1,535 yards.If the Bills do have a weakness, it’s their run defense, which could benefit the Colts, whose rookie running back Jonathan Taylor rushed for 253 yards and two touchdowns in their Week 17 victory against Jacksonville. Only Derrick Henry of Tennessee has run for more yards since Week 11.Will the Seahawks stick to the basics against the Rams?Next up, at 4:40 p.m., is the season’s final installment of a delightful N.F.C. West rivalry, with the sixth-seeded Los Angeles Rams visiting Seattle for the second time in two weeks to face the third-seeded Seahawks. The Rams lost that Week 16 clash — and their quarterback, too. Jared Goff, recovering from surgery to repair a broken right thumb, may or may not be available to start. If he is not, John Wolford, who threw for 231 yards and ran for 56 in a Week 17 victory against Arizona that clinched a playoff berth, would start in his stead.The Rams allowed the fewest points (18.5) and yards (281.9) per game in the N.F.L. this season, but they also didn’t score an offensive touchdown in the last two weeks. Entering the postseason with that offensive malaise is bad timing, but it might be surmountable, considering that Los Angeles has held Seattle to 36 total points in their two meetings this season while sacking Russell Wilson 11 times.On pace at midseason to throw for 56 touchdowns, Wilson tossed only 12 over the second half of the regular season. Coach Pete Carroll, apparently unnerved by Wilson’s seven turnovers in losses to Buffalo and the Rams, resorted to a more conservative approach — for years the Seahawks’ formula — facilitated by a defense that stabilized after a dreadful start to the season: Since Seattle’s Week 10 loss at Los Angeles, no team has allowed fewer points.Chase Young will try to keep Tom Brady from getting comfortable.Chase Young, a Washington defensive end, led all rookies with seven and a half sacks and 10 tackles for loss.Credit…Mitchell Leff/Getty ImagesThe final game of the day, slated for 8:15 p.m. between fifth-seeded Tampa Bay and fourth-seeded Washington, showcases two quarterbacks who, based on all good sense, should not have been doing what they did this season.At age 43, Tom Brady threw for 4,633 yards, more than every quarterback but Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson, and 40 touchdowns, tied with Russell Wilson and trailing only Aaron Rodgers, to lead the Buccaneers to their first playoff berth since 2007. Over the last four weeks, they have scored 148 points, the most in the N.F.C.For Washington, Alex Smith — whose status is questionable, as he has a calf injury — returned from a horrific 2018 leg injury to morph from third-stringer to backup to starter and help the Footballers secure their first division title since 2015.Smith’s on-field production, however, paled next to Brady’s, just one of the reasons this game has been touted as a mismatch. Brady is surrounded by an embarrassing collection of talent in Tampa Bay (11-5), from the receivers Antonio Brown and Chris Godwin to running back Ronald Jones to the rookie anchor at right tackle, Tristan Wirfs. Containing their offense should be a struggle for a Washington team that ranked 25th in scoring and 31st in yards per play, ahead of only the woeful Jets.It should be a lopsided game unless the Footballers (7-9) can make Brady’s life miserable all night — a realistic outcome given the team’s extraordinary pass rush. Brady succumbed to pressure in each of his three Super Bowl defeats and, at his advanced age, isn’t the most elusive fellow. Washington defensive end Chase Young led all rookies with seven and a half sacks and 10 tackles for loss. By the end of the night, those numbers will very likely swell. By how much could determine the game’s outcome.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      A ‘Super’ N.F.L. Playoff Weekend Is Missing Something. Can You Guess What?

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Coronavirus OutbreakliveLatest UpdatesMaps and CasesVaccination StrategiesVaccine InformationF.A.Q.TimelineAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn Pro FootballA ‘Super’ N.F.L. Playoff Weekend Is Missing Something. Can You Guess What?No, not Tom Brady. He made it. But the pandemic is forcing teams to keep large numbers of fans away.A limited number of fans, socially distanced, at a Tampa Bay Buccaneers game this season.Credit…Jason Behnken/Associated PressJan. 9, 2021, 7:30 a.m. ETThe N.F.L. playoffs are one of the biggest sporting obsessions in the United States, typically among the most-watched television programming of the year.And this year the postseason will get an extra boost because the N.F.L. has added two playoff games, for a total of six games over Saturday and Sunday in what the league is calling “Super Wild Card Weekend.”Yet the monthlong postseason party — which will include perennial contenders like the New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks as well as rarer participants like the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns — will be drained of some of the color, sound and pomp as the league navigates the coronavirus pandemic.Most games will be played with no or very few fans in the seats, sapping some of the drama — not to mention live crowd noise — from the football festivities. There will be only a few hundred, not thousands of, Terrible Towels waved in Pittsburgh. There won’t be any “12s,” as Seahawks supporters are known, shaking the rafters in Seattle, because spectators will be barred. Just 3,000 Saints fans will be yelling “Who dat?” in the cavernous Superdome.“I hate it for the fans,” Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger told reporters on Wednesday. “I think about what Heinz Field would be like Sunday night. I hate it for the Steelers, for the energy and excitement that it brings. But once again, that is what we are doing. That is what we are living in.”The Bills, who will kick off the bonanza of games on Saturday afternoon at home against the Indianapolis Colts, needed intervention from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York and an elaborate testing program to be able to host a few thousand fans for the first time this season.Viewers at home have become accustomed to seeing stadiums filled with cardboard cutouts and to hearing recorded cheers. But those make a poor substitute during the playoffs, when sold-out stadiums help add excitement for a television audience expanded by a surge in casual viewers.“Football this time of year is part of Americana, our town squares on Sundays and Saturdays and now even Wednesday,” said Andy Dolich, who ran business operations for four professional teams, including the San Francisco 49ers. “You have all sorts of digital devices and sound being pumped in, but there’s nothing like seeing fans sitting shoulder to shoulder with beer and brats being dumped in their laps.”The empty seats will hit Browns fans the hardest, Dolich said. After they ended the N.F.L.’s longest playoff drought last Sunday, their fans will not be able to attend the game in Pittsburgh. The Steelers expect to have fewer than 1,000 fans on hand on Sunday, limiting attendance to friends and relatives of players and staff members.With strict limits on attendance this weekend, there will be far fewer Terrible Towels at Pittsburgh’s Heinz Field.Credit…Justin K. Aller/Getty Images“It’s like Edmund Hillary getting to the top of Everest and not being able to tell anybody,” he said.The buzz-less stadiums have become one of the defining features of the league’s 2020 campaign, along with hundreds of positive coronavirus tests among players, coaches and staff members that forced games to be rescheduled, including one that was ultimately played on a Wednesday afternoon. Thirteen teams had no fans in attendance this season, and several other teams had fans at just a few games before health authorities banned large gatherings as the number of virus cases spiked this winter.The league drew a combined 1.2 million fans this year, less than 10 percent of last season’s number. The league’s 32 teams this season lost roughly $4 billion in sales of tickets, luxury boxes, food, parking and sponsorships. Even television viewership, the lifeblood of the league, fell 7 percent during the regular season, the first decline since 2017, when a substantial number of players knelt during the playing of the national anthem to protest racial and social injustice.The Super Bowl will be muted, too. To limit potential exposure to the virus, the teams will arrive only a day or two before the game. Many of the league’s biggest sponsors, who often host hundreds of their most important clients at the Super Bowl, will not travel to Tampa, Fla., for festivities before the game. The N.F.L. might fill just 20 percent of the seats at Raymond James Stadium, including vaccinated emergency medical workers invited by the league.Still, some fans will get a chance to see their teams play in person for the first time this season. The Bills will have about 6,000 fans this weekend, and the Packers said they would host about the same number of fans at their first home game, in the divisional round next weekend. The Tennessee Titans will have about 14,500 fans, or 21 percent of their capacity, at their home game; that number is in line with the attendance at many of their regular season games.In the future, though, when fans look back at pictures of this year’s playoff games, the empty seats are sure to stand out as much as, if not more than, the plays.“Intellectually, people will say it was remarkable that there were games, but that they were lacking the passion, which is a key element of live sports,” said Phil de Picciotto, the president of Octagon Sports, a talent agency and event management company. “It will feel lacking. But the alternative was to do nothing.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Cooper Kupp of the Rams Manages Work-Life Balance During Covid

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTalk About a Tricky Assignment. He’s Trying to Catch a Ball and a Baby.Covid-19 is forcing N.F.L. players and other pro athletes to make unusually hard decisions about work-life balance.Cooper Kupp, Rams wide receiver and father-to-be, at his home in Los Angeles.Credit…Maggie Shannon for The New York TimesJan. 8, 2021Updated 8:28 p.m. ETCooper Jameson Kupp Jr. — nicknamed June, as in Junior, by his parents — did not know the significance behind the note his mother asked him to deliver last May. But the 2-year-old eagerly complied, bouncing over to his father.Cooper Kupp, a sure-handed receiver for the Los Angeles Rams, scanned the piece of paper, then leapt past his surprised son to embrace his wife, Anna Kupp. The message: June would soon be a big brother.Disbelief washed over Cooper.June had been a blessing, arriving shortly after the couple decided to start a family. “This time, the second time around, it took a little longer,” Cooper said during a recent Zoom call. “This was something we were trying for and just hadn’t happened for us yet.”Suddenly, the couple needed a game plan. Navigating a pregnancy is strenuous for any expectant parent. For professional athletes, unyielding schedules can intrude on family obligations under the best of conditions. In the N.F.L., rigid coronavirus protocols have forced players to make tough work-life decisions as they trudge through the pandemic season.For the Kupps, the gift of a pregnancy has meant living in different cities and enduring the longest separation of their marriage at a time when they desperately wanted to be together.And that was before a positive Covid-19 test came into their lives.At the time Anna became pregnant, it wasn’t clear the N.F.L. would even play this season. But when spring turned into summer and a schedule was firmed up, the Kupps began to coordinate their plans with the league’s.Anna is due in late January. The couple didn’t know if the pandemic would still be raging then, how Los Angeles hospitals would cope, or how Covid would affect a pregnant woman. They knew this much: They hoped Cooper would still be playing football. If so, it meant his Rams had made the playoffs.The toughest and most pressing decision was whether to live together as the due date drew closer. If Anna’s labor came on suddenly, their families would not be able to quickly fly to Southern California because they’d first have to quarantine and test.As the Kupps prayed, debated and examined possibilities, players arriving at the same crossroads publicly voiced concern.In November, the couple decided that Anna would fly to the home they recently purchased just outside Portland, Ore. She would settle into the house and get through the final stages of pregnancy with help from her two sisters, who live nearby.The date Anna was set to leave, Dec. 16, was just another day at work for Cooper. As always, he woke up and said goodbye to his family before heading to the team’s facility.One step at a time, Anna thought. She finished readying suitcases and the family dog, Elouise. June managed to splash in a giant mud puddle just before they left home, and Anna scrambled to find a bathroom once they arrived at the airport terminal.Anna and June left sunny Southern California and arrived in the rain of the Pacific Northwest, a shift Anna appreciated “because I was sweating putting everything together,” she said.Wide receiver Cooper Kupp is coming off the Covid-19 list in time for the Rams’ playoff game against the Seattle Seahawks.Credit…Stephen Brashear/Associated PressAfter a day of practice, Cooper returned to a suddenly empty home. The day no longer felt normal. He would have liked to distract himself with more time at work, but team officials allow players inside the facilities only at designated times.And there is only so much film one can watch at home.“How much I would just give anything now to have an hour to hang out with my little boy, but I can’t,” Cooper said on the Zoom call from Thousand Oaks. Anna joined the call from Oregon.“That’s how that really hit me, early on was just how incredible those moments are in person. You can’t get a whole lot done over FaceTime with a 2-year-old,” Cooper said.They did not know how long they would be apart — three, five, seven weeks? — only that it would be their longest separation since they married in 2015, the summer between Cooper’s sophomore and junior season at Eastern Washington.They met in high school at a track and field event. Anna was a serious heptathlete on another team. Cooper had joined his school’s team to spend time with his buddies.June isn’t the only one who can miss the meaning behind a message. Cooper did not get the hint when Anna first approached him, but redeemed himself when he saw her at the next meet. Spotting her walking his way, he pretended to tie his shoes long enough to be within earshot. He asked for her phone number. “I was sure I was going to marry her then,” he said.Several years and one toddler later, the Kupps did their best to get through the holidays apart. On Christmas morning, Anna FaceTimed with Cooper. He watched June spending time with his cousins, excitedly opening presents. Cooper sent Anna a present that she refuses to open until they are reunited.“You want your son to have his dad, especially on a holiday like that, but we’ll celebrate together in a few weeks and it’ll be good,” Anna said.Tears formed in her eyes during the Zoom call as she recalled that day.Anna Kupp and June with Cooper Kupp on FaceTime at Christmas.Credit…Kupp Family“The hormones are getting Anna,” Cooper said.“I know,” she said. “I’m 37 weeks pregnant.”The Kupps weren’t looking for affirmation for their decision to live apart. They got some anyway when Cooper received a positive Covid-19 test in late December.“I guess there’s a little bit of a blessing in disguise that Anna and June aren’t here for this,” he said. “Having potentially brought this back to them if they were here would be a pretty scary thing.”The result surprised Cooper, who has not had any symptoms and hadn’t interacted with anyone outside of his team’s practice facility.“Both of us were wracking our brain like, ‘Where did this come from? How did this even come about?’” Anna said.The Rams went into Week 17 needing a win, or some help, to clinch a playoff berth, but they would have to play without Cooper and their injured quarterback, Jared Goff. The Rams scrapped for an ugly victory over the Arizona Cardinals as Cooper watched from Southern California, continuously pacing instead of sitting, and Anna from the Pacific Northwest. Cooper has passed subsequent tests, and he returned to practice on Wednesday.They have made it to January with Cooper available for Saturday’s first-round playoff matchup against the Seattle Seahawks and Anna set to deliver their second child at their new home.No one could have planned for 2020.Their 2021, however, is so far going according to schedule.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Mike Tomlin Reaches Another N.F.L. Postseason With Fewer Black Peers

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyMike Tomlin Reaches Another N.F.L. Postseason With Fewer Black PeersThe Pittsburgh Steelers’ coach hasn’t had a losing season in 14 years. His acumen and approach have stabilized the team even amid player controversies and as the N.F.L. has struggled with race.“I think whenever you’re a Black coach in his position, that other people put so much pressure on you to do everything,” Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey said of Mike Tomlin. Credit…Scott Taetsch/Getty ImagesJan. 8, 2021Updated 7:59 a.m. ETMaurkice Pouncey, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Pro Bowl center, has been around Mike Tomlin long enough to decipher his coach’s body language.“You see him, and then the next thing you know, he’s so locked in,” Pouncey, a Steeler since 2010, said during a recent telephone interview. “You’re like, ‘Dang. I know not to mess around.’ ”Most players under his leadership came to respect Tomlin’s ability to wed football acumen with a sense of fairness and a consistency, engendering a behind-the-scenes kinship and historic success on the field.He has not had a losing campaign in his 14 seasons as a head coach, navigating the Steelers through controversies that could capsize other franchises. Through it all, Tomlin’s stone-cold facial expression has been as much of constant as the Steelers’ postseason berths — Pittsburgh hosts the Cleveland Browns in the first-round of the playoffs on Sunday evening — even as the N.F.L. has evolved greatly since he became the youngest head coach and second African-American coach to win a Super Bowl after the 2008 season at age 36.“He’s never lied to anyone,” Pouncey said. “And I think sometimes people get it misconstrued that he’s somewhat of a player’s coach. And I get it. He’s really cool with the players, but then when he comes in there, it’s all business.”In public, Tomlin is full of scowls and digestible platitudes showcased throughout games and in news conferences, a vastly different demeanor than his players see.“If you just listen to Coach T talk, he going to spit nothing but game at you,” said Ike Taylor, a cornerback who played a dozen seasons for Pittsburgh before retiring in 2015. “You just got to listen. He’s something like a pastor or a preacher or an evangelist. He just got a way with words where he can just reach out to anybody without even trying to.”Pastor Vernon Shazier occasionally accompanied his son, Ryan, to the Steelers’ facility before Ryan’s career-ending spinal injury in 2017. Tomlin, Shazier said, could tell someone that his play is unacceptable and warn the player that he’d soon be “going shopping” for a replacement if it continued, and then laugh with the player at his locker all in the same day.That candor allowed players like Taylor to forge what he described as an ongoing big-brother relationship with Tomlin.While Taylor was still active, Tomlin learned that he harbored aspirations of one day working in a team’s front office. Tomlin occasionally allowed him to eavesdrop on personnel discussions to gain a deeper understanding of the league’s behind-the-scenes maneuvering.Ike Taylor forged what he described as a big-brother relationship with Tomlin as a cornerback with the Steelers.Credit…Nick Cammett/Diamond Images, via Getty Images“Until it was time for them to really do business, I had to get out,” Taylor said. “I was probably one of the only active players who could sit in draft meetings and sit in on draft day with the organization. He gave me the green light to do a lot of things active players usually couldn’t have done, but that was the relationship him and I had.”Tomlin’s steadiness has been felt especially this seesaw season amid the pandemic. Pittsburgh began the season by reeling off 11 straight wins before its pursuit of a perfect season evaporated with three straight losses, as defenses started encroaching on the aging Ben Roethlisberger’s short-passing game. The Steelers capped their season with another loss to Cleveland in Week 17, though Roethlisberger did not play.Tomlin declined to speak for this article and he’s rarely gone into depth on his background the way he did during a round table discussion this summer with Vernon Lee and Carl Francis, co-founders of the Hampton Roads (Va.) Youth Foundation.Tomlin has been involved with the organization since he started as an N.F.L. assistant in Tampa Bay, helping to mentor the area’s youth. “Carl and I have considered him a partner in this endeavor,” Lee said. “Not just someone who’s coming back as a guest. It still shocks me to be quite honest with him being the head coach for the Steelers, how hands-on he is.”The three men, all natives of coastal southeast Virginia, discussed familiar streets, high schools and area legends. Tomlin eventually discussed the one motto that drives him.“Young people don’t care what you say,” Tomlin said in the talk. “They watch you move.”Tomlin should know. In the round table, he detailed growing up in Hampton, Va., with his older brother, Ed, “a product of a broken home. My parents separated before my first birthday and myself and my brother, we moved back in with her parents,” he said, referring to his mother’s parents.People looked out for their own in the 757, the area code for the seven cities that make up the Hampton Roads community. Adults steered Tomlin. His stepfather, Leslie Copeland, was a large influence. Tomlin followed Ed’s path into football, joining a league at age 7. Coaches of other teams showed genuine interest in the well-being of the young wide receiver, proving to Tomlin that if it took a village, he had found the correct one.Tomlin envisioned a career playing football by the time he arrived at Denbigh High in Newport News, Va. He doodled plays in class to the chagrin of his freshman geometry teacher, Gail Gunter. She warned him before calling his mother, Julia, after he failed to turn in a couple assignments.Gunter challenged Tomlin. Two years later, Gunter served as a counselor for the students competing in Odyssey of the Mind, a scholarly competition. The other students had recruited Tomlin to participate in constructing a vehicle but Gunter could not locate him when it was time to start.“Mike would come moseying on in after all the football players had left because he didn’t want them to see him coming into something that was academic,” Gunter said.The team finished second in the state. Tomlin had asked the other students not to disclose his involvement, which coincided with him asking Julia not to display his honor roll sticker on her car’s bumper.At the College of William & Mary, Tomlin continued drawing a distinction between football and his other pursuits. “I’ve referred to him before as a bit of a closet nerd even though he tries to downplay how smart he is,” said Terry Hammons, a fellow receiver and one of Tomlin’s closest friends at the university.As a student at the College of William and Mary, Tomlin trash-talked opponents on the football field but engaged with tough questions in the classroom.Credit…Cal Sport Media, via Associated Press ImagesDavid Aday, a professor of sociology and American studies, taught Tomlin in a criminology course. Tomlin sought to understand the racial, social and class links between mass incarceration, topics, Aday said, that are typically difficult to discuss.“The fact that he was a young Black man, some of the implications were a little more threatening, distressing,” Aday said. “There are a couple of ways you can deal with that. You can put your head down and say, ‘We’ll get through this conversation and move on.’ Or you can ask, ‘What’s going on here? What do we know that could help us to understand this?’”On the field, Tomlin talked trash to opponents and teammates alike, teetering the difference between inspiring his sideline and infuriating the other. He’d slyly caution Hammons to be safe before receiving punts — in essence, daring Hammons to return the ball.“Mike knew I had a bit of a Napoleon complex and he knew how to get me going,” Hammons said.Tomlin debated for more passes. He took over meetings with Hammons. During film reviews, Zbig Kepa, their receivers coach, sometimes dropped the remote on the table and told his boisterous crew to figure out the tape for themselves.“He was comedy on the field,” Kepa said. “Then, he would really keep that energy level going and communicate and ask questions in meetings.”His hopes of an N.F.L. career fading, Tomlin became the wide receivers coach at Virginia Military Institute in 1995, carving a path to stay involved with the game and using the intellect he had gained from studying it since his youth.He quickly worked his way up the college ranks with stops at Memphis, Arkansas State and Cincinnati, along the way learning the benefits of meticulously planning and documenting his days and charting goals in old Franklin Planners.“I got this Franklin Planner and I bought these cassette tapes, right?” Tomlin said during the round table. “And I committed to a day of watching these cassette tapes and organizing my life through this Franklin Planner. Just thoughts, quotes of the day, appointments, critical notes, call backs, et cetera, et cetera. I needed that organization because I was drowning in life at that time.”That propensity for planning paid off in 2007 when, after six seasons as an assistant in Tampa Bay and Minnesota, he interviewed to replace Bill Cowher as the Steelers’ head coach. Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt and assistant head coach Russ Grimm were the favorites to win the job but Tomlin impressed owner Dan Rooney and team president Art Rooney II in his interviews by presenting a detailed plan for the franchise over the next calendar year.Tomlin in his first year as Steelers head coach in 2007. He inherited Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who is now in the twilight of his career.Credit…Joseph Sargent/Icon SMI, via Getty ImagesThe Steelers appointed Tomlin as the franchise’s third head coach since 1969 on the same day that two Black coaches, Tony Dungy’s Indianapolis Colts and Lovie Smith’s Chicago Bears, met for the first time in the Super Bowl.“Mike ended up getting his job at a time when there was a lot of discussion about African-Americans being able to get a job, being able to hold it if you got it and who was qualified,” said Terry Robiskie, a longtime N.F.L. assistant coach. “It was always the discussion that they could never find anyone that was qualified.”Tomlin’s hiring was viewed as a success of the Rooney Rule, named after Dan Rooney, the former owner of the Steelers, that requires teams to interview minority candidates for high-profile vacancies. Tomlin joined six other Black men with N.F.L. head coaching jobs the year he was hired; with the Los Angeles Chargers’ recent dismissal of Anthony Lynn after the 2020 regular season, the number of Black N.F.L. head coaches is down to just two — Tomlin and Brian Flores of the Miami Dolphins — in a league where nearly 70 percent of players are African-American.Tomlin is now a veteran coach. The career of Roethlisberger, the Hall of Fame quarterback he inherited, is winding down. Members of the stingy defense passed down to him are long retired. Tomlin’s reputation as a player’s coach was dinged through running back Le’Veon Bell sitting out the 2018 season while seeking a new contract and Antonio Brown’s cycles of drama.Change has swept the broader N.F.L. landscape, too. As the N.F.L. has struggled with its place in the national reckoning on race, Tomlin last year came to the defense of backup quarterback Mason Rudolph, who is white and was accused of using a racist slur toward Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, who is Black, during a brawl between the two teams.“He brings the perspective as a Black man with children, but he doesn’t try to force his view on his players and that’s what he’s done from the beginning,” Hammons said.Instead, Tomlin allows his players to deliberate issues collectively to land on a unified response, “allowing them to have a vested interest in the ultimate decision,” Hammons said.That was the goal in 2017. Tomlin allowed his players to debate on whether they would stand or kneel for the national anthem to draw awareness to racial injustice and abuse. The roster did not reach a consensus and decided to stay in the locker room before a game against Chicago. Alejandro Villanueva, an offensive lineman and Bronze Star Medal recipient, stood by himself in the tunnel as the song played.Alejandro Villanueva of the Pittsburgh Steelers stood by himself in the tunnel for the national anthem before a game against the Chicago Bears in 2017.Credit…Joe Robbins/Getty Images“I think whenever you’re a Black coach in his position, that other people put so much pressure on you to do everything,” Pouncey said. “And he’s not here for that. And if you really know Coach Tomlin, he’s a football coach. That’s what he loves. That’s what he dedicates his whole entire life to.”Decades ago, Robiskie met Dungy when the pair roomed together for the East-West Shrine Game, a postseason college showcase. Their paths paralleled. They became friends as part of a small number of Black N.F.L. coaches and sometimes vacationed together with their wives.After dinners, Dungy, by then Tampa’s coach, often brought up the name of a young coach on his staff, full of potential, learning by the day. “Mike who?” Robiskie, then an assistant coach with the Browns, would say. “Tomlin? I’m going to get him just like I get you.”Years later, Robiskie, now a running backs coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, estimates that his teams are 0-19 against Tomlin.To Robiskie, Tomlin has extended the legacy of coaches like Dungy, Smith, Dennis Green and Art Shell while staying true to himself.The others, Robiskie said, were low-key personalities. “Mike was going to laugh and joke and scream and if he had to get upset and cuss and fuss, he was going to get upset and cuss and fuss,” Robiskie said.He added. “We’ve all got to tip our hats off to him. He’s brought that trophy there once before and I, for one, I get on my knees and pray he brings them another one.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Asking the N.F.L. Playoff Questions That Need Answers

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyAsking the N.F.L. Playoff Questions That Need AnswersCan Tom Brady keep the momentum going? Is Seattle’s defense good again? Can anyone beat the Chiefs?Underestimate Patrick Mahomes at your own peril. Kansas City — before its backups lost Sunday to the Chargers — won seven consecutive games.Credit…Rob Carr/Getty ImagesBen Shpigel and Jan. 7, 2021, 2:00 a.m. ETTo play football amid a pandemic, N.F.L. players worked from home a lot. They took coronavirus tests daily. And when they did report to team facilities, they were required to wear a mask.It has been a weird season. And chances are it’s going to get weirder.The playoffs begin Saturday, and even more than in years past, no one has even an inkling how they’re going to unfold. With an expanded 14-team field, consecutive triple-headers this weekend could compound the craziness and we’re still four-and-a-half weeks (hopefully) from the Super Bowl.Below, we try to sift through the chaos and ask the questions that will define the upcoming postseason. We even try to answer them, too.Is there a better quarterback-receiver tandem than Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams?Aaron Rodgers is the leading candidate for the M.V.P. Award in part because of his synchronicity with Davante Adams, whose enormous catch radius and red zone efficiency are among the league’s best.Credit…Raj Mehta/USA Today Sports, via ReutersNo.Oh, should we keep going?On a tequila-streaked vindication tour after Green Bay drafted his potential successor in the first round, Rodgers reached the precipice of his third Most Valuable Player Award by throwing again and again to Adams, who finished with 115 receptions for 1,374 yards and 18 touchdowns and grabbed almost every ball in his radius: 115 of 116 passes deemed catchable by Pro Football Focus, tied for the best rate in the N.F.L.Overall, Rodgers’s outstanding ball placement and aptitude for leading receivers helped Adams gain 592 yards after the catch, the most at his position. But their partnership truly thrived in the red zone, that chaotic space inside the opposition’s 20-yard line where passing lanes shrink and trust between quarterbacks and receivers is most critical. There, Adams, despite missing two games with an injury, caught 23 passes and scored 14 touchdowns, both most in the N.F.L. in that area.So, all love for Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, whose mind meld transformed Buffalo’s offense, and Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, who wrecked defenses downfield as they generally have with Kansas City. But the telepathy between Rodgers and Adams, cultivated across seven years together, powered their season to remember — and, they hope, a playoff run they won’t ever forget.Which A.F.C. team has the best chance of beating the Chiefs?Bills quarterback Josh Allen became the first player with at least 4,500 passing yards, 35 touchdown passes and five rushing touchdowns in a single season. Credit…Adrian Kraus/Associated PressThe Chiefs (14-2) have been the N.F.L.’s metronome in recent years — consistently scoring, winning, dazzling. But a recent disturbance in the force has stripped their sheen ever so slightly. Struggling to bury opponents as they did during last December’s surge, Kansas City — before its backups lost Sunday to the Chargers — won seven consecutive games by six points or fewer.Underestimate Coach Andy Reid, Mahomes and the crew at your own peril. Still, the A.F.C. is rife with teams positioned to scare Kansas City, and that group is fronted by a contender that hasn’t won a playoff game since the 1995 season, a little over four months before its current quarterback was born: the Buffalo Bills.Reining in his carpe diem approach, Josh Allen, 24, became the first player with at least 4,500 passing yards, 35 touchdown passes and five rushing touchdowns in a single season. The league’s most improved player, Allen guided the Bills to nine victories in their final 10 games — their only loss in that span came via a Hail Murray flung into triple coverage in Arizona.The Bills, the No. 2 seed in the A.F.C., rank among the league leaders in takeaways. During their six-game winning streak to end the regular season, no team scored more points or had a greater point differential, winning by an average of 19.8 points, according to Pro Football Reference.The Chiefs did beat Buffalo earlier in the season. But could they do it again? The Bills would love to get a chance to answer that question in the A.F.C. championship game.Can Tom Brady and the Buccaneers beat good teams?Tom Brady’s best four-game stretch in Tampa Bay came in the team’s final regular season games against some of the N.F.L.’s worst defenses.Credit…Mike Ehrmann/Getty ImagesAlternately exciting and exasperating, overpowering and underwhelming, the Buccaneers (11-5) rolled into their first postseason in 13 years by winning their last four games, which just so happened to be Tom Brady’s best four-game stretch in Tampa Bay: He had 333.3 passing yards per game, 12 touchdowns, one interception and a 126.9 passer rating. That it all came against some of the league’s sadder defenses — Detroit, Minnesota and Atlanta twice — is irrelevant to the Buccaneers, who were just glad to see it. But now they must try to replicate that production against better competition.And that is where Tampa Bay has struggled. Facing teams that made the playoffs, the Buccaneers went 1-5. In four of those losses Brady threw multiple interceptions, and in an otherwise impressive season — he threw for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns at age 43 — those were the only games in which he had more than one.The Buccaneers’ roster — the linebacker trio of Shaquil Barrett, Lavonte David and Devin White hold down the defense while Brady has Antonio Brown, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski, to throw to — is loaded. So loaded that their performance shouldn’t be so volatile.With the Bucs matched up with a 7-9 Washington team, not exactly better competition, maybe they won’t be. But speaking of Washington …Can the winner of the historically dreadful N.F.C. East actually win a playoff game?Chase Young, likely the league’s top defensive rookie, has made it known that he wants to sack Tom Brady.Credit…Chris Szagola/Associated PressIn offering up the Footballers in the wild card round, the division is putting forth the team best suited to upset Tampa Bay and here’s why: pressure.No quarterback likes it. But some are better at handling it than others. This season, though Brady’s offensive line largely did well at keeping him upright, he had the third-lowest adjusted completion percentage when pressured, according to Pro Football Focus, and had a 54.5 passer rating — lower than that of Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold in that situation.Washington bedeviled quarterbacks with its superb defensive front, led by the first-round picks Jonathan Allen (2017), Daron Payne (2018), Montez Sweat (2019) and Chase Young (2020), likely the league’s top defensive rookie, who skipped into the tunnel following the team’s division-clinching victory over Philadelphia yelling, “Tom Brady, I’m coming. I want Tom.” Young has been saying as much since the N.F.L. scouting combine.The Footballers ranked sixth in pressure rate and in sacks, and tied for second in yards allowed per play. If they, too, can unnerve Brady, then Washington, only the third team ever to qualify for the playoffs with a losing record, perhaps (maybe, possibly) could join the other two — the 2010 Seattle Seahawks and the 2014 Carolina Panthers — in winning its playoff opener, as well.How far can Aaron Donald and Jalen Ramsey take the Los Angeles Rams?Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey has been a lockdown defender charged with shadowing the game’s best receivers.Credit…Kyusung Gong/Associated PressAfter the highest-scoring regular season in league history, teams’ playoff hopes hinge on how fast and in what volume they can put up points. The Rams, ranked 22nd in offense, matched the Bears in points, finishing ahead of only Washington among the playoff teams.It’s ever more obvious that the Rams — after needing to beat Arizona in Week 17 just to secure a playoff spot — are as unbalanced as a weighted seesaw. A once-formidable offense has sputtered under Jared Goff’s command, placing the onus on the league’s stingiest defense — first in yards and points allowed — to drive Los Angeles’s playoff hopes. Fortunately for the Rams, they face a familiar opponent in the division-rival Seahawks. Across their two regular-season meetings, they sacked Russell Wilson 11 times, and Ramsey — who allowed an absurdly low 20.6 yards per game in his coverage, according to Pro Football Focus — all but defused star receiver DK Metcalf, holding him to one reception for 11 yards on four passes thrown his way.If the Rams beat the Seahawks and New Orleans defeats Chicago, Los Angeles would travel to play the Packers. Ramsey draping Adams, while Donald and his mates pester Rodgers — oh, what fun that could be.How dangerous does Baker Mayfield have to wake up feeling for the Browns to win?Baker Mayfield threw more touchdowns than in 2019, his fewest interceptions as a pro and finishing with 3,563 yards passing in an offense that demanded he play safely.Credit…Jason Miller/Getty ImagesIn his rookie season, Mayfield famously told reporters ahead of a late-season win, “when I woke up this morning, I was feeling pretty dangerous,” which spawned a downtown Cleveland mural, ignited the fanbase — and became a punchline in losing seasons hence.Now in the team’s first playoff game in 17 seasons, where it will face the Steelers (12-4), Mayfield will be credited with helping lead Cleveland (11-5) to its best record since the franchise was resurrected in 1999 and the success should help his on-field reputation catch up some to his off-field notoriety.Yes, Mayfield helped get them there by throwing more touchdowns than in 2019, his fewest interceptions and finishing with a modest (by 2021 standards) 3,563 yards passing in an offense that demanded he play safely — which he did, at least compared with previous seasons. But the Browns’ run hasn’t solely hinged on their quarterback.Cleveland is fueled by an exceptional running-back tandem of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt and an exceptional offensive line. At their best, the Browns rampage across the field on the ground. They’re 8-2 when Mayfield attempts 30 or fewer passes and 6-0 when they rush for more than 150 yards.Mayfield is still prone to bouts of inconsistency but, within a balanced offense, is better positioned than ever to stress a defense: With his turnovers down and a steady running back duo, Mayfield excelled on play-action passes, ranking among the top five in passer rating and yards per attempt on those plays, according to Pro Football Focus. So long as the Browns can move the ball steadily and consistently, Mayfield’s daring is still an effective surprise attack.Is Seattle’s defense repaired?Seattle’s defense looked potent as the Seahawks won six of their final seven regular season games.Credit…Stephen Brashear/Associated PressThrough nine games, a Seahawks team that once prided itself on its defense — that built its identity on it, that won a Super Bowl because of it — was winning even though that unit allowed an average of 30.1 points and 441.1 yards. A defensive turnabout began with a Week 11 victory against Arizona, and the Seahawks won six of their last seven games of the regular season by yielding the fewest points and third fewest yards per play over that stretch.Was this simply regression? Or did Seattle fix what was broken?Call it a patchwork fix. Carlos Dunlap, the defensive end Seattle added at the trade deadline from Cincinnati, had critical victory-sealing sacks against Arizona and Washington. Jamal Adams, a versatile safety picked up from the Jets in the off-season, helped too, by adding to the strong play from linebackers Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright. Without question, the defensive improvement was real.It just might not be permanent. With Adams and defensive tackle Jarran Reed injured, the defense’s overall strength will again be tested in the wild card game against the Rams. While the Seahawks would benefit if Rams quarterback Jared Goff can’t play, they could struggle to sustain pressure on opposing quarterbacks in the next round if they don’t get those key pieces back quickly.Which coordinator is most important to their team?Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Greg Roman said he hit the “reset button” on the team’s offense in Week 13.Credit…Nick Wass/Associated PressFrom Leslie Frazier of Buffalo and Dennis Allen of New Orleans on defense to Eric Bieniemy of Kansas City and Arthur Smith of Tennessee on offense, numerous coordinators had an outsize impact on their team’s success. But none will be quite as vital these playoffs as Greg Roman of Baltimore, the mastermind behind the Ravens’ revived — and fearsome — offense.Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson called Roman’s offense “predictable” in mid-November, before the team lost three consecutive games. Roman recently said he hit “the reset button” after those losses, right before Baltimore thrashed Dallas in Week 13. Winning their last five games, a stretch that coincides with quarterback Jackson’s return from Covid-19, the Ravens lead the N.F.L. in rushing and rank second in points per game and yards per play.A healthier and more stable offensive line has helped J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Jackson take advantage, especially on the outside, in a reconfigured run game.Roman is familiar with resets. He was on Baltimore’s staff in 2018, when Jackson replaced the injured Joe Flacco and Baltimore reworked its offense on the fly. And as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator in 2012, when starting quarterbackAlex Smith got hurt midseason, Roman reimagined an offense that catered to Colin Kaepernick’s dynamism, helping the 49ers reach the Super Bowl.The Ravens are peaking, but they are trailed by memories of what happened last postseason, when Jackson committed three turnovers in an upset loss to Tennessee — their opponent on Sunday. If Roman can help Jackson get the first playoff win of his career, the Ravens’ biggest win will have been changing the narrative on their ceiling.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      Enjoy Derrick Henry’s High-Mileage Fun. History Shows It’s Unsustainable.

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTrend WatchEnjoy Derrick Henry’s High-Mileage Fun. History Shows It’s Unsustainable.The Titans running back rushed for 2,027 yards, the fifth-highest total in N.F.L. history, and is hauling the team back to the postseason. It will be a fleeting joy ride, if past seasons are any indicator.Derrick Henry ran for 710 yards in his final four regular-season games, including 250 yards as the Titans clinched the A.F.C. South with a 41-38 victory over the Houston Texans.Credit…Sam Greenwood/Getty ImagesJan. 6, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETTennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry is the last American muscle car. He’s huge, fast, powerful, a little intimidating and undeniably retro-cool. But he’s not very practical, and despite appearances, he’s probably not built to last.Henry rushed for 2,027 yards this season, the fifth-highest total in N.F.L. history. He became the second running back to eclipse 2,000 rushing yards since Chris Johnson of the Titans in 2009 and Adrian Peterson in 2012, and is just the eighth player in league history to reach that milestone. Henry led or tied for the lead in rushes, yards and rushing touchdowns for the second consecutive season in 2020.Henry’s accomplishments become even more remarkable on closer examination. He rushed for 1,268 yards on first downs alone; that production by itself would have allowed him to finish third in the N.F.L. in total rushing yards. Henry ran for 710 yards in his final four games, including 250 yards as the Titans clinched the A.F.C. South with a 41-38 victory over the Houston Texans, reinforcing his reputation for getting stronger as the season wears on. Pro Football Focus credits Henry with a league-high 77 eluded tackles on running plays; Henry “eludes” most tacklers by tossing them out of the saloon like the hero of a wild West serial, but that still counts.Henry rushed for 446 yards in last year’s playoffs, propelling the Titans to upset victories over the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots before the Kansas City Chiefs came back to defeat them for the A.F.C. championship. Only four other running backs rushed for more yards than Henry in a single postseason, and three of them — Terrell Davis in 1997 and 1998, Marcus Allen in 1983, John Riggins in 1982 — are now Hall of Famers, due in large part to their playoff and Super Bowl heroics. (Titans great Eddie George was the other, in 1999). A similar performance this year could vault the Titans into the Super Bowl and Henry onto a short list of all-time legends.Henry rushed for 446 yards in last year’s playoffs, propelling the Titans to upsets over the Ravens and Patriots. A similar performance this year could vault the Titans into the Super Bowl and Henry onto a short list of all-time legends.Credit…Carmen Mandato/Getty ImagesUnfortunately, strategic trends, analytics precepts and history itself are not on Henry’s side.Henry’s success flies in the face of modern N.F.L. wisdom. He’s a workhorse in a pass-happy league which has determined that sharing carries among a committee is more efficient, sustainable and affordable than force-feeding even the most formidable rusher. Henry rushed 378 times during the regular season, the highest total since DeMarco Murray rushed 392 times for the 2014 Dallas Cowboys. Two or three running backs each season typically earned 350-plus carries from the 1980s through the early 2000s. Only three rushers (Henry, Murray and Arian Foster in 2012) have crossed that threshold in the last decade.Henry’s heavy workload makes him a potential victim of the dreaded Curse of 370, an analytics principle popularized by Football Outsiders in the mid-aughts. Research suggests that 370 or more carries in one season typically result in injuries or steep decline the subsequent season. Murray, for example, fell to just 702 yards in 2015 after his high-mileage 2014 season. History is littered with other examples (and scant counterexamples) of rushers whose careers were curtailed by overuse, many of whom were thought to be exempt from the “curse” given their greatness, fortitude, dedication, etc.(The fact that usage declined at the same time that the Curse of 370 gained exposure is hardly a coincidence. N.F.L. decision makers act like high school tough guys when it comes to analytics, shouting “Math is for nerds!” at news conferences, then whispering asks for all the test answers.)Henry’s rugged style only compounds concerns about his workload. Most modern running backs double as receivers, allowing them to work the sidelines and absorb fewer hits against smaller defenders. Henry hammers the middle of the field like a 1970s running back, turning every Sunday into a demolition derby. It’s a refreshing change of pace in a league that has strayed far from its muddy roots, and Henry certainly catches some defenders off guard by opting to run straight through them instead of around them. But between the carries and the collisions, Henry has voided the terms of his service warranty and is starting to tempt fate.Henry “eludes” most tacklers by tossing them out of the saloon like the hero of a wild West serial, but that still counts.Credit…Jay Laprete/Associated PressEvery generation produces one or two running backs who buck every statistical trend, shrug off grueling workloads and remain effective well after their odometers flip: Adrian Peterson, Frank Gore, LaDainian Tomlinson, Curtis Martin, Eric Dickerson, Allen, Riggins and a few others. Henry may well be one of those backs. Then again, Todd Gurley, Le’Veon Bell and many other recent rushers appeared to be indestructible one year and their production fell off the next season, in many cases soon after they signed lucrative long-term contracts.The Titans signed Henry for four years and a reported $50 million in July. Despite his current excellence, there’s a high risk that they will wind up paying to have Henry towed to the scrapyard in a year or two.For now, however, the Titans are counting on Henry to once again drag them through the playoffs. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill’s crisp passing reduces Henry’s burden to a degree, but the Titans defense finished 24th in the league in points allowed and 28th in yards allowed.On Sunday, Tennessee will face a Baltimore Ravens team that scored 186 points in its last five games. They will need Henry to stiff-arm weary defenders and hammer home touchdowns to win that potential shootout but also to have a prayer against the Kansas City Chiefs and/or the Buffalo Bills in later rounds.Henry must do whatever it takes to muscle the Titans way into the Super Bowl this year, because history warns that they will not get many more chances.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      In Georgia, Pro Teams Dive Into Senate Races With Different Playbooks

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      Browns Are In, Ending N.F.L. Playoff Drought

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyBrowns 24, Steelers 22Browns Are In, Ending N.F.L. Playoff DroughtCleveland beat Pittsburgh on Sunday, qualifying for the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season.Quarterback Baker Mayfield, celebrating the Browns’ win on Sunday, delivered on his promise: The team’s makeover began three years ago when he was chosen with the first pick in the N.F.L. draft.Credit…Scott Galvin/USA Today Sports, via ReutersJan. 3, 2021Updated 9:31 p.m. ETCleveland Browns fans love to revel in their misery. The long list of dud coaches. The unending line of quarterback busts. The team abandoning the city only to return a few years later. And all that losing, including a winless season in 2017.But Browns Nation got some measure of payback on Sunday when the Browns beat their rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-22, in the regular-season finale, and qualified for the N.F.L. playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season, an absence of 17 years.The two teams — the Steelers (12-4), as the third seed in the A.F.C., and the Browns (11-5), as the sixth — will meet again next week in Pittsburgh in the wild-card round.The Browns’ victory ended the longest playoff drought in the N.F.L. (the Jets now take over the top spot with a 10-year absence) and completed a makeover that began three years ago when Cleveland chose quarterback Baker Mayfield as the first overall pick in the draft.When asked about what the victory meant to the team’s fans, Mayfield said, “It means so much to this city.”The win, in front of a pandemic-limited crowd of about 12,000 fans at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, provided an extra dose of satisfaction because it came against the Steelers, who have dominated the Browns for decades. Since the Steelers beat the Browns in the wild-card round in January 2003 — Cleveland’s last postseason appearance — Pittsburgh has won 29 of their 36 matchups.During that fallow period, the Browns have burned through 25 quarterbacks, 10 head coaches and a whole lot of hope. The team has gone 91-196 since its last playoff appearance (a .317 winning percentage), a stretch that has included 14 seasons with double-digit losses. Their only winning season during that stretch had been in 2007, when the Browns were 10-6.The Steelers had clinched the A.F.C. North and had no way to claim the top seed in the A.F.C. and its first-round bye, so they sat several of their best players on Sunday, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.The Browns were short-handed as well. Six players were on the Covid-19 list and several offensive linemen were injured. Cleveland went without any starting wide receivers last week in a loss to the Jets because of an outbreak on the team. Several more players and coaches were added to the Covid list since then.This made the challenge bigger for the Browns, even though they were playing at home and against the Steelers’ backup quarterback, Mason Rudolph.The Browns opened with a bang, scoring a touchdown and field goal on their first three possessions, sparked in part by running back Nick Chubb, who passed 1,000 yards rushing for the season.But the Steelers kept the game close with three field goals through three quarters. The Browns, though, found a way to stay one step ahead.After Pittsburgh narrowed the score to 10-9, Mayfield scrambled for 28 yards to keep the next drive alive. He then hit tight end Austin Hooper with a 2-yard touchdown pass to put the Browns up, 17-9.On the ensuing drive, M.J. Stewart of the Browns intercepted Rudolph and returned the ball to the Pittsburgh 20-yard line. Wide receiver Jarvis Landry ran for a touchdown four plays later to push the lead to 24-9.No Browns win over the Steelers comes easily. Rudolph hit wide receiver Chase Claypool for a 28-yard score. On the next drive, the Steelers sacked Mayfield to push the Browns out of field-goal range. They then failed to convert a fourth-down play, which gave the Steelers the ball back with 3 minutes 35 seconds to play.Rudolph hit wide receiver Diontae Johnson for a 47-yard completion, then threw a touchdown to JuJu Smith-Schuster to narrow the score to 24-22.The Browns broke up the 2-point conversion to maintain the lead, but nearly fumbled the recovery on an onside kick. It wasn’t until Mayfield ran 3 yards for a first down that the Browns were able to run out the clock, secure the win and punch their ticket to the postseason.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More