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Game 1 - Pittsburgh 43, Cleveland 0
CLEVELAND (Mon Sep 13 2:15:03 1999) -- The "Dawg Pound" began the night with some loud barking for their beloved Cleveland Browns. By the end of the night, the Pittsburgh Steelers turned the cheers into helpless whimpers.
The Steelers made the Browns look every bit like an expansion team, rolling to a 43-0 rout in the first NFL regular season game at new Cleveland Browns Stadium.
A sellout crowd of 73,138 was on hand to celebrate the return of the Browns, who were back in the NFL after a three-year absence. But the Steelers, an old AFC Central rival, ruined the party and thoroughly dominated the Browns.
"The crowd was loud when we got started and the easiest way to take the crowd out of it is not to give them anything to cheer about," said Steelers coach Bill Cowher, who played and served as an assistant coach for the old Browns.
The Steelers (1-0) had 460 total yards to 40 for the Browns, held Cleveland to just two first downs and controlled the ball for 47:49 compared to 12:11 for the Browns. Pittsburgh ran 88 offensive plays and had 32 first downs while Cleveland ran just 28 offensive plays.
Pittsburgh rushed for 213 yards and held Cleveland to nine yards on the ground. Jerome Bettis led the Steelers with 89 yards on 18 carries.
Under new offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride, the Steelers scored on eight straight possessions before Josh Miller punted for the first time late in the fourth quarter.
"Gilbride called a great game," Bettis said. "He kept their defense off balance. We didn't treat them as an expansion team. They had experienced guys out there."
Kordell Stewart scored on a one-yard run in the first quarter and hit running back Richard Huntley with a five-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Huntley also scored on a three-yard run in the third quarter and caught a 21-yard TD pass from backup Mike Tomczak in the fourth quarter.
Rookie Kris Brown, a seventh round pick, kicked three field goals for the Steelers.
Stewart seemed more at ease in Gilbride's system and completed 15-of-23 passes for 173 yards. Tomczak replaced him in the third quarter and was 8-of-8 for 78 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
"Kordell did a great job of taking what they gave us," Cowher said. "We threw a lot at him. He's kind of absorbing it and we're going to keep throwing it at him."
Chris Palmer of the Browns suffered the worst loss for a coach making his debut since Weeb Ewbank of the Baltimore Colts absorbed a 48-0 loss to the Rams in 1954.
"We played poorly," Palmer said. "The defense just couldn't keep them off the field. We had mental errors. I'm disappointed the offense didn't execute. We were outmatched tonight."
Cleveland's Ty Detmer completed 6-of-13 passes for 52 yards. Rookie Tim Couch, the first overall pick in the draft, was 0-for-3 with an interception.
"Everybody had a bad night tonight," Detmer said. "We never got out there thinking we're not going to move the ball. We knew they were fast on defense."
On Cleveland's first play from scrimmage, Detmer hit Leslie Shepherd with a 13-yard pass. However, three plays later safety Chris Oldham intercepted a pass by Detmer and returned it nine yards to the Cleveland 39.
Stewart hit rookie Troy Edwards with a 19-yard pass and Bettis broke off a nine-yard run to the Cleveland 11. Stewart then rushed for nine yards and scored on a one-yard run on the next play with 5:16 left in the quarter.
The Browns managed their last first down of the game when Detmer connected with Shepherd on a 19-yard play with a little more than four minutes left in the quarter.
The Steelers put together an 18-play, 79-yard drive which lasted 7:37. Brown missed a 30-yard field goal, but it was negated by an offside penalty against John Thierry. He later redeemed himself with a 19-yard field goal to cap the drive 5:04 into the second quarter.
On Pittsburgh's next possession, the Steelers drove 56 yards in six plays, capped by Stewart's TD pass to Huntley. The key play in the drive was a 42-yard pass from Stewart to Hines Ward.
A 28-yard field goal by Brown with six seconds left in the half increased Pittsburgh's lead to 20-0.
In the second half, the Browns ran 12 plays for minus-7 yards and an interception.
Huntley scored on a three-yard run in the third quarter to cap a 14-play, 76-yard drive. He rushed six times for 31 yards, and caught a 24-yard pass on a 3rd-and-12 play to highlight the drive.
In the fourth quarter, Brown kicked a 19-yard field goal, and Tomczak hit Huntley and Ward with scoring passes of 21 and one yard, respectively.
Couch relieved Detmer midway through the fourth quarter and had his first pass picked off by rookie safety Scott Shields and returned 12 yards to the Cleveland 29.
"I never expected it to be like this," Couch said. "I came
in and forced the first one and after that point everything was downhill. We
can't get any worse than we were tonight."
NFL FINAL 1ST 2ND 3RD 4TH TOTAL
--- --- --- --- -----
PITTSBURGH 7 13 6 17 43
CLEVELAND 0 0 0 0 0 FINAL
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST QUARTER: PIT - TD, KORDELL STEWART 1 YD RUN (KRIS
BROWN KICK),
9:44. Drive: 5 plays, 39 yards in 2:30. Key
plays: Oldham 9-yard interception return to
Cleveland 39; Stewart 19-yard pass to Edwards
to Cleveland 20; Bettis 9-yard run to Cleveland
11; Stewart 10-yard run to Cleveland 1.
PITTSBURGH 7-0
2ND QUARTER: PIT - FG, KRIS BROWN 18 YD, 5:04. Drive: 17 plays, 79
yards in 7:37. Key plays: Stewart 13-yard pass
to Hawkins on 3rd-and-5 to Pittsburgh 38;
Stewart 13-yard pass to Blackwell on 3rd-and-6
to Cleveland 31; Stewart 7-yard pass to Shaw to
Cleveland 12; 5-yard offside penalty on Brown's
Thierry on 4th-and-2 to Cleveland 7. PITTSBURGH
10-0
PIT - TD, RICHARD HUNTLEY 5 YD PASS FROM KORDELL STEWART
(KRIS BROWN KICK), 10:11. Drive: 6 plays, 56
yards in 3:06. Key plays: Stewart 42-yard pass
to Ward on 3rd-and-12 to Cleveland 16 plus
8-yard roughing-the-passer penalty on Brown's
Miller to Cleveland 8. PITTSBURGH 17-0
PIT - FG, KRIS BROWN 28 YD, 14:54. Drive: 7 plays, 42
yards in 3:31. Key plays: Bettis 14-yard run to
Cleveland 40; Huntley 7-yard run on 3rd-and-3
to Cleveland 26; Browns 5-yard delay-of-game
penalty on 3rd-and-1 to Cleveland 12.
PITTSBURGH 20-0
3RD QUARTER: PIT - TD, RICHARD HUNTLEY 3 YD RUN (PAT BLOCKED), 9:32.
Drive: 14 plays, 76 yards in 7:55. Key plays:
Witman 2-yard run on 3rd-and-1 to Pittsburgh
33; Stewart r 24-yard pass to Huntley on
3rd-and-12 to Cleveland 30; Huntley 4-yard run
on 3rd-and-2 to Cleveland 18; Huntley 13-yard
run to Cleveland 5; Huntley 6 rushes for 31
yards. PITTSBURGH 26-0
4TH QUARTER: PIT - FG, KRIS BROWN 19 YD, 3:50. Drive: 14 plays, 64
yards in 8:00. Key plays: Tomczak 14-yard pass
to Zereoue on 3rd-and-4 to Cleveland 45;
Tomczak 11-yard pass to Edwards to Cleveland
34; Tomczak 10-yard pass to Huntley to
Cleveland 12; Tomczak 5-for-5 for 46 yards.
PITTSBURGH 29-0
PIT - TD, RICHARD HUNTLEY 21 YD PASS FROM MIKE TOMCZAK
(KRIS BROWN KICK), 4:12. Drive: 1 play, 21
yards in 0:09. Key plays: Edwards recovery of
Powell fumble on kickoff at Cleveland 21. 21.
PITTSBURGH 36-0
PIT - TD, HINES WARD 1 YD PASS FROM MIKE TOMCZAK (KRIS
BROWN KICK), 8:52. Drive: 7 plays, 29 yards in
4:19. Key plays: Shields 12-yard interception
return to Cleveland 29; Tomczak 10-yard pass to
Edwards to Cleveland 17; Zeroeue 7-yard run to
Cleveland 10; Zeroeue 7-yard run to Cleveland
3. PITTSBURGH 43-0
TEAM STATISTICS
PIT CLE
-------- --------
FIRST DOWNS 32 2
Rushing 14 0
Passing 16 2
Penalty 2 0
3RD-DOWN EFFICIENCY 14-20 0-7
4TH-DOWN EFFICIENCY 0-1 0-0
TOTAL NET YARDS 460 40
Total plays 88 28
Average gain 5.2 1.4
NET YARDS RUSHING 213 9
Rushes 55 9
Average per rush 3.9 1.0
NET YARDS PASSING 247 31
Completed-attempted 24-32 6-16
Yards per pass 7.5 1.6
Sacked-yards lost 1-12 3-21
Had intercepted 0 2
PUNTS-AVERAGE 1-35.0 6-47.5
RETURN YARDAGE 38 119
Punts-returns 3-17 0-0
Kickoffs-returns 0-0 8-119
Interceptions-returns 2-21 0-0
PENALTIES-YARDS 4-26 4-23
FUMBLES-LOST 0-0 2-2
TIME OF POSSESSION 47:49 12:11
PLAYER STATISTICS
Missed field goals: None.
Pittsburgh rushing: Jerome Bettis 18-89, Amos Zereoue
16-42, Richard
Huntley 10-41, Kordell Stewart 6-33, Jon Witman 3-11, Pete Gonzalez
2-minus 3.
Cleveland rushing: Terry Kirby 5-10, Marc Edwards 1-1,
Ty Detmer
1-minus 1, Sedrick Shaw 2-minus 1.
Pittsburgh passing: Kordell Stewart 15-23 for 173 yards,
0 INT, 1 TD,
Mike Tomczak 8-8 for 78 yards, 0 INT, 2 TD, Pete Gonzalez 1-1 for 8
yards, 0 INT, 0 TD.
Cleveland passing: Ty Detmer 6-13 for 52 yards, 1 INT,
0 TD, Tim
Couch 0-3 for 0 yards, 1 INT, 0 TD.
Pittsburgh receiving: Richard Huntley 5-67, Troy Edwards
4-45, Hines
Ward 3-51, Courtney Hawkins 3-27, Bobby Shaw 3-26, Will Blackwell
2-18, Jon Witman 2-9, Amos Zereoue 1-14, Jerome Bettis 1-2.
Cleveland receiving: Leslie Shepherd 2-32, Kevin Johnson
2-13, Marc
Edwards 1-5, Terry Kirby 1-2.
Pittsburgh tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Levon
Kirkland 4-0-0,
Chad Scott 3-0-0, Earl Holmes 2-0-0, Nolan Harrison 1-0-0, Jason
Gildon 1-0-1, Chris Oldham 1-0-1, Joey Porter 1-0-1, Orpheus Roye
1-0-0.
Cleveland tackles-assists-sacks (unofficial): Wali
Ranier 9-5-0, Tim
Mctyer 9-0-0, Corey Fuller 7-2-0, Marquez Pope 7-0-0, Jamir Miller
7-0-0, Antonio Langham 6-0-0, Ryan Mcneil 3-2-0, Darius Holland
4-0-0, John Thierry 2-2-0, Rahim Abdullah 2-1-0, Mike Thompson 2-1-0,
Derrick L Alexander 1-2-1, John Jurkovic 2-0-0, Arnold Miller 2-0-0,
Marlon Forbes 1-0-0, Daylon Mccutcheon 1-0-0, Marquis Smith 1-0-0,
Hurvin Mccormack 1-0-0, Lenoy Jones 1-0-0.
Interceptions: Pittsburgh (Chris Oldham 1 for 9 yards,
Scott Shields
1 for 12 yards).
Fumbles lost: Cleveland (Tim Couch, Ronnie Powell).
Opponent's fumbles recovered: Pittsburgh (Nolan Harrison,
Troy
Edwards).
Officials: Referee-Bob Mcelwee, Umpire-Scott Dawson,
Head
linesman-James Wilson, Line judge-Ron Phares, Back judge-Jim Howey,
Side judge-Ken Baker, Field judge-Bill Lovett.
A: 73,138; T: 2:46.
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