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One of the perceived advantages the Pittsburgh Steelers held over the Cleveland Browns entering the wild-card round meeting on Sunday was a rested and relatively healthy Steelers defensive front going up against a Browns offensive line minus Pro Bowl left guard Joel Bitonio. It got even dicier-looking for the Browns when All-Pro right tackle Jack Conklin and Bitonio’s replacement, Michael Dunn, each left the game and did not return with injuries of their own.
It didn’t matter. The Browns offensive line still dominated Pittsburgh. Aside from the impressive ground attack (127 yards on 31 carries), the pass protection pitched a complete shutout. All-Pro T.J. Watt, Pro Bowler Cam Heyward and the rest of the Steelers pass rush never got close enough to Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield to register a single pressure on No. 6 in white and orange.
From Zebra Technologies, which is behind the NFL Next Gen stats, in its wild-card round press release,
Baker Mayfield was cool under pressure on Sunday night as he went 13/18 for 192 yards and 3 TD vs. the blitz. Despite the Steelers’ 53% blitz rate, Pittsburgh didn’t force any pressures on Mayfield’s 34 dropbacks, marking the 2nd most dropbacks without a pressure in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).
A sped-up Browns offense helped out, too. Also from Zebra Technologies, Mayfield got the ball out of his hands quicker on Sunday night in an average of 2.34 seconds. That’s a quarter of a second faster than any other game he played this year.
Mayfield’s passing chart for the night from Next Gen stats:
That doesn’t happen without phenomenal pass protection from the Browns line. Remember, OL coach Bill Callahan and his assistant, Scott Peters, were both not on the sidelines due to COVID-19 issues. With no head coach Kevin Stefanski either, it’s truly remarkable how well the shuffled offensive line performed in Pittsburgh.