Week 6 Winners and Losers: The Steelers Ignored Baker Mayfield for a Reason

PITTSBURGH -- A tale of two teams left Heinz Field on Sunday, as the Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 5-0 and the Cleveland Browns began questioning how impressive their 4-2 start really is.

It wasn't pretty for the Browns. In a game many anticipated to be much closer than the 38-7 final score, Pittsburgh proved they can meet any standard the league throws at them. Meanwhile, Cleveland was brought to the reality that there's still work to be done.

Week 6's winners and losers weren't as easy as you'd imagine. If we could, the simple answer would've been, Steelers - winners, Browns - losers. But we'll get into the details of the Steelers' dominating win and how it left the AFC North in their hands moving forward.

Winners

James Conner

I keep James Conner off this list each week because the expectation has remained high for the running back. Whenever he's healthy, 100-yard games are what the threshold is.

At this point, though, it's becoming the most consistent part of the offense. Conner has finished three of his four full games this season with more than 100 yards and a score. As the offense continues to try and find its stride for a full four quarters, their running back keeps them alive.

Thanks to Conner.

He's been quiet all season. Even after his Week 1 injury, there hasn't been much noise from or about the running back. But each week, he puts up big numbers and continues to be a factor.

"It was a must-win game for us with AFC North football," Conner said postgame. "I just try to execute, stretch what I see. Run hard. And it worked out for us today."

Week 6 was Conner's ninth 100-yard rushing game. It was his third of the season. And if he continues to stay healthy, he's the most stable part of this Steelers offense.

Minkah Fitzpatrick

Not everyone understands that a good game for a safety usually entails little to no stat line. What Minkah Fitzpatrick did last season was something unheard of, which is why it was so remarkable, but may have left his expectations for 2020 a bit too high.

Fitzpatrick needed to find the football sooner rather than later and took no time to do just that in Week 6. His interception against Baker Mayfield not only opened up what would turn into a blowout but calmed every fan's nerves that he was declining.

"I don't know what it did for us, but I think it sent a message to them that third down wasn't going to be easy sledding today and we needed it," Tomlin said. "Minkah is an A-player. It was a significant play. He's capable of delivering those types of plays and we'll keep snapping the ball and watching him do it. That's the type of player he is.

A pick-six started a downward spiral for Mayfield that he could never recover from. The Steelers secondary forced two interceptions and allowed just 145 passing yards.

It was a combination of some seriously unstoppable pass rush, keeping Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry quiet and forcing the Browns to play from behind. But it all started with Fitzpatrick.

Steelers Front Seven

If I wanted to, Week 6's Winners and Losers could be a list of every member of the Steelers' front seven. T.J. Watt, Bud Dupree, Stephon Tuitt, Cam Heyward, Vince Williams, Devin Bush and Robert Spillane. Every single one of them was just as good as the other.

"This game was going to be defined by our bigs," Tomlin said. "Our bigs' ability to stop the run, our bigs' ability to protect Ben [Roethlisberger] and win the line of scrimmage for us in the run game, and we talk openly about it all week. A synopsis of this game in a nutshell is our bigs, our big people on both sides of the ball, really answered the challenged and played 'A' football."

In the wake of the Bush injury, Spillane entered the game as saw no drop-off. The efficiency remained the same, with a big hit coming from the backup on Browns tight end Austin Hooper to clear fans' minds.

On every drop back, there seemed to be pressure. The Steelers had four sacks, leading to Baker Mayfield's departure from the ball game, and pressured the quarterback on 47% of his dropbacks.

Kareem Hunt was held to 40 yards on 13 carries, once again, proving this group's dominance up front.

Third Down Efficiency

The Steelers knew they needed to clear up their third down struggles after allowing 10 conversions to the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 5.

Pittsburgh held their opponent to just on third down conversion this week in a blowout win over the Browns. An 8.3% success rate for Cleveland.

It needed to be addressed, was, and is now on the other side of their list of struggles. This defense as a whole was unstoppable at Heinz Field Sunday, and their success stopping the Browns on possession downs was crucial in keeping momentum on their side.

"We acknowledged that third down was an issue for us last week defensively," Tomlin said. "I thought they answered that challenge well and emphatically today. It was necessary to slow down a dangerous Browns' attack. One that had been ringing up a bunch of points per game."

Losers

Baker Mayfield

In five weeks, an opposing player has yet to make the list of winners or losers. Mayfield's three-quarters of action against the Steelers was - by far - the biggest standout at Heinz Field. And whether it was his injury, lack of confidence once things got bad, or a complete overhaul from the defense, he set a "loser" bar too high for any other player to meet.

Coming into the game, every time a Steelers player was asked about Mayfield, the answer was directed towards something else. Whether it was playing with a lead or the running game, no one wanted to talk about Mayfield.

It was because, really, they weren't concerned about him. If they forced his hand and made the Browns play from behind, they held the advantage. Once all that came to fruition, it became very clear why no one was worried about the Browns quarterback.

By the fourth quarter, Mayfield was on the sideline and the Browns have given up. His day ended early because of a rib injury that has bothered him all week, but the Browns' weekend ended early because their offense couldn't get anything going.

"Baker is a good quarterback at the end of the day. He's one of those top-notch guys. I respect this dude," Bud Dupree said. "We don't really think about hurting a player. We just go out there and we hit him a couple of times and we know his ribs are hurting, that's on him. But we don't intentionally go in and try to hurt somebody."

Noah Strackbein is a Publisher with AllSteelers. Follow Noah on Twitter @NoahStrack, and AllSteelers @si_steelers.