CLEVELAND -- A halftime adjustment by the Steelers’ coaching staff was responsible for a dominating second-half performance that resulted in an overtime victory against the Cleveland Browns.
And it had nothing to do with rediscovering Jerome Bettis.
The strategy change was employed by Steelers defensive coordinator Tim Lewis, who tried to take away the quick throws by Browns quarterback Tim Couch by having his cornerbacks play tighter single coverage on the wide receivers.
The results were downright dramatic.
The Steelers held the Browns to 58 yards offense in the second half, including just 24 net yards passing by Couch. What’s more, after not being sacked in the first half, he was sacked seven times in the second half because he had to wait a little longer for his receivers to come open.
“We made him pat the ball two or three more times than he wanted,” inside linebacker Earl Holmes said.
“He didn’t have enough time to throw or hold it with the corners playing so tight,” outside linebacker Jason Gildon said.
Gildon, a Pro Bowl linebacker in 2000, had 3 1/2 sacks and also had two passes defensed in the Steelers’ 15-12 overtime victory at Cleveland Browns Stadium. His biggest sack came with 22 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter when he dropped Couch for a 5-yard loss on second-and-16 at the Steelers’ 47.
That came one play after rookie nose tackle Casey Hampton had his first NFL sack after Couch’s 11-yard run to the Steelers’ 41.
The seven sacks gives the Steelers 23 in their past four games and puts them on pace for 68 this season, which would easily surpass the team record of 55 set in 1994.
“The first one is nice,” Hampton said. “But they were driving so it was also big.”
Gildon spent so much time blowing past Browns tackle Roger Chanione it was as if he had an “EZPass” sticker attached to his helmet. Although Gildon was credited with 3 1/2 sacks in the official statistics kept by the Cleveland Browns, that number likely will be changed because the half-sack should have been credited to outside linebacker Joey Porter.
Nonetheless, the three sacks enabled Gildon to pass former defensive end Dwight White (56) and move into fourth place on the Steelers’ all-time sack list with 56 1/2.
“The defense showed some character and came back,” Gildon said. “It’s good to have a tight game like this to get us ready and bring us together as a team. We took the field with the attitude that we’re not going to let them come back at the end.”
Gildon’s reference was to what happened in the 13-10 loss last week to the Baltimore Ravens, a game in which the Ravens drove 40 yards on seven plays for the winning field goal.
That became even more important when kicker Kris Brown, who kicked four field goals to tie the score, 12-12, missed a 45-yard attempt with 1:37 remaining. Brown eventually won the game in overtime with a 32-yard field goal with 5:22 elapsed.
“The defense played superbly after that start we had, after those first couple of drives,” Coach Bill Cowher said. “They allowed us to keep the game close.
“They came up with some big plays. Couch got outside one time, and it looked like they were going to go for the game-winning field goal, and we came up with a couple of big sacks.”
The Browns jumped out to a 9-0 lead when Bettis was stopped in the end zone for a safety and Couch threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to tight end O.J. Santiago on a play in which safety Lee Flowers stumbled in coverage. That was the first time this season the Steelers allowed points in the first quarter.
The Steelers were having a hard time getting to Couch, who completed 8 of 14 passes for 89 yards in the first half, because he was throwing quick slants on three-step drops.
So, at halftime, Lewis put his cornerbacks, Chad Scott and Dewayne Washington, in tighter single coverage. That, Lewis said, forced Couch to hold the ball longer to wait for his receivers to come open.
“I rue the day this isn’t the case, but they’re playing as well as anyone in the league,” Lewis said of his cornerbacks. “A lot of people don’t see it, but [Scott] and [Washington] allow us to do a lot of things with our blitz package.”
With his quick throws taken away, Couch became a prime target for the Steelers’ pass rush. He was sacked five times in the fourth quarter after the Steelers tied the score on Brown’s 37-yard field goal. Gildon had two, Hampton and Holmes one each. Defensive end Aaron Smith was credited with half a sack on the play in which Gildon, not Porter, was erroneously credited with a half-sack.
“They didn’t try to fool us with double moves, and we started getting pressure,” said Holmes, who had his first sack of the season. “That’s one thing about us. We can give them a different look. Someone looks like they’re coming from the right and we come from the left. Someone looks like they’re coming from the left and we come up the middle.”
Lewis' change baffles Couch 
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