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Tomlin era begins vs. Browns
CLEVELAND - As somebody who never played for either the Pittsburgh Steelers or Cleveland Browns and who doesn't hail from either city, Mike Tomlin is something of an outsider in the long-running series.
But that doesn't mean the Steelers' new head coach isn't quickly figuring out what a game against Cleveland is all about.
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Just the 16th coach in the team's 75-year history, Tomlin is also just Pittsburgh's third head coach since 1969 as well.
"He's got something to prove," Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward said of Tomlin. "He's out here for a purpose. There have been only two coaches here in the last (38) years, so there's a lot of pressure on him.
"But he wants to go out and prove to everybody he can be a great coach."
Tomlin said earlier this week that he's not treating his first regular season game as a head coach any differently than any of the five preseason games he coached. But the players noticed a difference in him during the week leading up to today's opener at Cleveland (1 p.m.).
"He's definitely had a little extra hop in his step this week," said linebacker Larry Foote. "But we all have. We're all ready to go out and play a game that means something. We want to get him a W in his first game."
A loss to Cleveland would not only start the Tomlin era off on the wrong foot, it would give the Browns a rare victory in a series they once dominated.
The Steelers have won 13 of the past 14 meetings and 14 of 17 - counting one playoff game - since Cleveland re-entered the NFL in 1999. The overall series now stands even at 55-55 counting two playoff games.
And while the players may no longer look at Cleveland as their biggest rival within the AFC North, many of the fans still do.
"It might be overblown, but it doesn't seem odd coming from our fans and media and stuff," said quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. "I saw Alan (Faneca) last night at the grocery store and we were signing autographs and stuff throughout the grocery store. People were coming up and saying, 'You have to win or our season's over.' Geez, it's the first game of the year. But we take that mentality that it's a must-win for us because it is a divisional game, it is the first game and it's a start."
The Steelers certainly want to get off to a better start than they did last season. Despite winning their season opener against Miami, Pittsburgh was just 2-6 at the midway point of last season before finishing 8-8.
Two of those victories last season came against Cleveland, including their second meeting last December when Willie Parker set a Steelers' record with 223 rushing yards in a 27-7 victory in which the Steelers outrushed the Browns 303-18.
That game was one of the low points in Cleveland head coach Romeo Crennel's first two seasons with the Browns, a tenure that has seen the Browns go just 10-22.
There is some added excitement in Cleveland this year, however, as the team made a draft-day trade to acquire a second first-round draft choice, a selection used on quarterback Brady Quinn.
But despite a solid preseason, Quinn won't start today against the Steelers. That honor will fall on three-year veteran Charlie Frye.
Frye is winless in two starts against the Steelers, including a start during his rookie season in 2005 when he was sacked eight times and had four fumbles in a 41-0 Christmas Eve mauling.
It was a much different story in his second start, as Frye led the Browns to a 13-3 lead early in the fourth quarter before Roethlisberger rallied the Steelers to a 24-20 win.
"Charlie has experience," said Crennel of his decision to start Frye. "He has the most experience of all the quarterbacks on our team. I think he has started 18 games, so I felt like that was worth something. I also thought in the competition we had in the preseason, I think he became a stronger quarterback, as a result of that competition, so I chose him."
