PITTSBURGH — Forget the 0-4 start. Forget the remarkable finish, the one that kept the Pittsburgh
Steelers in the playoff picture until the final minutes of the regular season.There’s no such thing as
partial credit in the NFL.“We were an 8-8 team,” safety Troy Polamalu said.One that will spend January at
home for a second straight year.Le’Veon Bell ran for 90 yards and a touchdown as the Steelers drubbed the
lifeless Browns 20-7 on Sunday, though Pittsburgh’s bid to become the second team in NFL history to go
winless in September and make the playoffs ended when San Diego edged Kansas City 27-24 in overtime.“We are
going to build on this,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “I think we have put together a good
foundation.”One that went 6-2 over the final eight weeks, recovering from a potentially franchise-altering
55-31 loss to New England on Nov. 3 to play perhaps the best football in the AFC by someone not named Denver
over the second half.Or, the exact opposite of what happened in Cleveland, which fired first-year coach Rob
Chudzinski hours after the game.The Browns (4-12) lost their final seven games and 10 of their last 11. Not
exactly the step forward new owner Jimmy Haslam was looking for with a roster littered with five Pro Bowl
players.“We needed to see progress with this football team,” the Browns said in a statement after firing
Chudzinski. “We needed to see development and improvement as the season evolved and, unfortunately, we took
a concerning step backward in the second half of the year.“Our fans deserve to see a consistently
competitive team. We have high standards, and there’s an urgency for success. When we believed we were not
positioned to achieve significant progress in 2014, we knew we had to admit that a change was needed, and
move forward.”Chudzinski’s players did something after the game they failed to do during it: rally around
their coach.“It’s just absurd to me that a report would be out like that, about a good coach like that,”
Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson said. “It’s crazy, and that (ticked) me off when I heard that.”Cleveland
didn’t exactly play angry while letting the Steelers roll to victory for the 26th time in 31 meetings since
the Browns were revived in 1999.Roethlisberger passed for 179 yards and a touchdown against two
interceptions as Pittsburgh won its third straight to avoid the franchise’s first losing season since
2003.“Guys just kept fighting,” Steelers defensive end Cam Heyward said. “Wasn’t anything glorious or
something beautiful, we just came out of nowhere.”Jason Campbell completed 23 of 41 passes for 240 yards
with a touchdown and an interception. Josh Gordon caught seven passes for 82 yards to finish with an
NFL-high 1,646 yards receiving, a first for the franchise. It proved little solace on a wet, miserable day
at Heinz Field in which Cleveland looked very much like the same old Browns.Cleveland was largely
noncompetitive over the season’s final three months, with seven losses by a touchdown or more, including two
to the Steelers by a combined 47-18.There is no sense of panic in Pittsburgh. A season that appeared
teetering on embarrassment after the record-setting loss to the Patriots ended up with a decidedly rosier
finish.The Steelers scored on the opening drive, a 9-yard strike from Roethlisberger to Jerricho Cotchery,
and it was more than enough. Whenever the Browns threatened, they found a way to botch it. Twice they failed
on fourth-down attempts in Pittsburgh territory and didn’t reach the end zone until Campbell found Fozzy
Whitaker on a 35-yard pass with 2:46 remaining.By then most of the attention had turned to the scoreboard,
where the biggest roars were saved for scores by the Bengals and Jets, who then won to boost Pittsburgh’s
playoff chances.Kansas City nearly did the same, but Ryan Succop missed a 41-yard field goal with 4 seconds
left in regulation and San Diego survived.Still, the Steelers remain convinced better days lay ahead, thanks
in part to Bell’s rapid development. He broke Hall of Famer Franco Harris’ team record for total yards from
scrimmage by a rookie by combining for 96 yards in the muck at Heinz Field. Bell finished with 1,259 total
yards in just 13 games, 24 more than the mark of 1,235 Harris set in 1972.Bell’s 5-yard touchdown burst in
the second quarter, which included a nifty spin move in the backfield, gave the Steelers a 14-0 lead at the
break. It capped an 87-yard drive in which he touched the ball 10 times in 14 plays.That was plenty for a
rejuvenated defense that sacked Campbell three times, including a strip fumble by defensive end Brett
Keisel, likely playing his final regular-season game of his 12-year career with Pittsburgh.Despite the
outcome, Keisel isn’t closing the door on a return.“I still feel like I can play,” Keisel said. “You know,
we’ll see.”Just not until 2014.NOTES: Brown caught nine passes for 97 yards to finish with 110 receptions on
the season, narrowly missing the club mark of 112 set by Hines Ward in 2012. … Roethlisberger finished
with 4,261 yards passing, the second-highest total in team history to his 4,328 in 2009.