CLEVELAND – While the Cleveland Browns’ offense faltered, the defense delivered once again – just as it has all season. In a tied game, the Browns had 1:18 left and a realistic goal of about 30 yards to score a winning kick. Considering they had gained 58 yards on six possessions in the entire second half against a stout Pittsburgh Steelers defense and only had short passes on the game plan, overtime seemed as inevitable as the approaching sunset.
An electrifying home crowd, which had been in high spirits for much of the day, understandably seemed to run out of juice. But someone – at first a few hundred, then a few thousand – apparently still believed. As the Browns offense broke through the huddle and started the final drive, chants of “DTR, DTR” rang out.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson, the Browns’ new starting quarterback, had a decent performance in the first half. He was erratic and struggled in the second half, and a 10-0 Browns lead turned into a 10-10 tie. DTR, as he is commonly known, had not completed a pass for a positive yardage on first down since the final 30 seconds of the first half. So he picked a good time to break that streak, hitting Elijah Moore 15 yards to start the final drive and get the Browns to midfield. Then he hit some more, and in what felt like a mad dash, he calmly led the Browns into time-killing mode as they set up Dustin Hopkins for his third game-winner of the season.
Hopkins hit from 34 yards and the Browns defeated the Steelers 13-10. Thompson-Robinson became the third starting quarterback to lead the Browns to a win this season as they moved to 7-3, as they did in their 2020 playoff season, making a move that could ultimately be viewed as a major step toward the postseason . The Browns face Monday and a two-game road trip. They are a half-game behind the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC North and occupy the first of the AFC’s three wild card spots with seven weeks left.
It would have been a miserable Monday at the Browns’ facility — and throughout much of Northeast Ohio — if Thompson-Robinson hadn’t completed all four passes he threw on the final drive. The Browns passed from their own 35 to the Steelers’ 37 on these throws and then ran the rest of the way to run out the clock and set up the game winner. The DTR chants continued throughout that final drive — the quarterback admitted he heard them — and when Thompson-Robinson stopped near the Browns’ tunnel after the game to sign autographs and take a photo with two young fans to do, the chants and chants had morphed into a different direction, pure cries of joy.
“Those are big moments when you’re waiting for your guy to come through,” Browns coach Kevin Stefanski said. “He did it. Made some big plays during that drive, made big plays throughout the game. I know it wasn’t always perfect, but he persevered when it counted.”
It had been a wild week for the Browns. Deshaun Watson led the fourth-quarter rally in Baltimore last week, only to find he would miss the rest of the season with a broken bone in his throwing shoulder.
Thompson-Robinson was on his way to dinner Tuesday night to celebrate his 24th birthday when Browns general manager Andrew Berry called to tell him the rookie would get another chance to start — and his job in in a phase that can now be described as a full-fledged playoff. Thompson-Robinson and the Browns had failed miserably in Week 4 — and in many ways, Stefanski had let his rookie quarterback down when Cleveland believed Watson would play until about two hours before kickoff. Thompson-Robinson never had a chance in the Ravens’ 28-3 loss, and the more experienced PJ Walker then passed Thompson-Robinson on the depth chart.
You could argue that seeing Thompson-Robinson back out there hearing those chants and making those clutch passes to Moore, Kareem Hunt, Amari Cooper and David Njoku was as surprising as the manner , as Cleveland’s offense suddenly came to life.
In the third and fourth quarters before that game-winning drive, Thompson-Robinson had completed 7 of 20 passes for 28 yards and an interception. Before the final drive, the Browns had four first downs in the second half. The furthest they had traveled was to the Steelers’ 36-yard line, and that drive ended with Thompson-Robinson’s interception.
Stefanski wanted to make his defense work against a Steelers offense that didn’t scare anyone. He would confuse his rookie quarterback a bit and also extend plays in certain windows. But what now counts as another well-run game was Stefanski’s most conservative yet. The topics were simple and safe. The Browns also had problems running in the second half and kept putting things in the hands of Thompson-Robinson.
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“Follow my keys, follow my rules,” Thompson-Robinson said of his mindset. “If it’s not there, do the checkdown and don’t make a play worse than it is.”
Add in what Thompson-Robinson said after being asked what this win means to him personally – “I’m already focused on next week” – and you’ll know at least part of the reason Stefanski won this year Rookie returned week.
The Browns use this defense as much as it takes it. At least this week, four well-timed throws were enough.
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“Dorian doesn’t lack confidence,” Stefanski said. “I would say that’s exactly what he is. He is a confident boy. He trusts his abilities. So from the first snap to the last, he was ready to go.”
The confident boy made it big. Then he left the stadium wearing a really big coat.
“It was a whirlwind,” Thompson-Robinson said. “I just can’t thank the fans enough, Kevin, our entire program, every guy in that locker room. Everyone helped me. Everyone let me know they had my back.”
Browns cornerback Greg Newsome II stood in front of Thompson-Robinson’s locker after the game and yelled, “Hero!” Newsome joked with Thompson-Robinson about his “arrival” and his big final drive. Thompson-Robinson tried to shoo him away from his locker toward the showers, telling Newsome, “We can’t do this without you.”
Newsome’s response: “S-, we can’t do this without you.”
After an upset by the San Francisco 49ers in Week 6, Newsome said the Browns’ defense “already knew it was the best in the world.” With a few exceptions, things have been going just as well since then. But in a plodding game that seemed more likely to end in a 10-10 tie than a regulation win for the Browns, Thompson-Robinson made the biggest shots. He threw just two downfield for over 10 yards all day. His average target depth was 3.6 yards, according to RBSDM.com. He dropped several good throws as Pittsburgh got back into the game, and he said afterward that he thought he “could lose it” after his interception on the sideline.
But he stayed cool. He was given one last chance and he delivered. The crowd chanted his name. The Browns won in dramatic fashion for the fourth time in six weeks, notching another big victory that sets up even bigger games ahead. As expected, the Browns added Joe Flacco to the practice squad on Sunday night. But Thompson-Robinson is the starter for now, and he has a winning streak on his resume.
“I said it would be night and day out there (from the Ravens game),” Thompson-Robinson said. “I worked hard and I’m just glad my teammates were with me.”
(Photo: Nick Cammett/Getty Images)