Steelers Travel Down Memory Lane : AFC: A record home crowd cheers Pittsburgh to a 17-7 victory over Cleveland, clinching the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

It was the ultimate throwback weekend. The Pittsburgh Steelers took an entire city--and the Cleveland Browns--back to the 1970s.

The Steelers, pumped to a Super Bowl-like pitch by a towel-twirling, throwback-to-the-’70s crowd and given two gift scores by the Browns, defeated Cleveland, 17-7, Sunday to secure the AFC Central title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

The Steelers (12-3) won their seventh in a row, their longest streak since 1983, and have won 12 games for only the fourth time in franchise history. They won Super Bowls the other three times they did it.

“That’s what this is all about, trying to get to the big show,” Pro Bowl linebacker Kevin Greene said. “If we win two (playoff games), we’re in the show.”

Six of the last seven AFC teams to hold home-field advantage made the Super Bowl. The only exception was the Steelers, who lost a divisional playoff game at home to Buffalo in 1992.

“But we’re a better, more mature, more experienced team than we were then,” All-Pro cornerback Rod Woodson said. “Like today, we made mistakes too, lots of them, but we also made big plays.”

The Browns (10-5) simply made too many mistakes. Committing three turnovers and three bad penalties, they were swept by Pittsburgh for the first time since 1981 and will enter the playoffs as a wild-card team even if they finish with the second-best record in the AFC.

A poor-starting team--they were held scoreless for three quarters last week by Philadelphia--the Steelers turned two Cleveland penalties into touchdowns on their first two possessions. That forced the Browns out of their conservative, run-oriented offense, and played into the hands of a defense that has allowed an NFL-low 14 touchdowns in 15 games.

Vinny Testaverde, 21 of 42 for 250 yards and two interceptions, took the Browns on the longest scoring drive of the season, 84 yards, against the NFL’s top-ranked defense. But Testaverde also took them out of the game with bad defensive reads, inexcusable interceptions and underthrown passes to wide-open receivers.

The Steelers’ unexpected big lead helped limit the Browns’ Leroy Hoard, averaging nearly 100 yards a game the last six weeks, to only 25 yards in eight carries.

“We’re better than the Steelers. Definitely, we’re better than them,” the Browns’ Bennie Thompson said. “Take away the penalties and the turnovers and they can’t stand a chance against us.”

Neil O’Donnell didn’t complete a pass for nearly two quarters, but completed six of seven, including a 40-yard touchdown pass play to Yancey Thigpen in a 14-point first quarter against a defense that had allowed only 38 first-quarter points.

“Those 14 points took Cleveland out of its game plan and got them all out of whack,” the Steelers’ Carnell Lake said. “It was just fantastic, the whole city was fired up. After that, we just fed off the fans.”

The Browns, who haven’t won in Pittsburgh since 1989, can only wonder what would have happened if it weren’t for the turnovers and 96 penalty yards.

With Pittsburgh lined up to punt on fourth and one from the Browns’ 45 on its initial drive, Thompson, the Browns’ big-play specialist on special teams, jumped offside. Instead of punting, the Steelers had a first down at the 40, and O’Donnell crossed up the defense by connecting with Thigpen for a touchdown on the next play.

O’Donnell threw incomplete on a third-and-10 on Pittsburgh’s next possession, but cornerback Don Griffin’s pass interference penalty gave the Steelers a first down at the 21.

A play later, O’Donnell connected with Eric Green for 17 yards for a first down at the three, and Barry Foster, returning from a two-game injury layoff to gain 106 yards, scored two plays later.

It was 14-0. It was also a madhouse inside Three Rivers, packed with a record crowd of 60,808.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Steeler rookie Brentson Buckner said. “It was like a college crowd because they never shut up. There was as much intensity in the stands as there was on the field.”

The Browns had numerous chances to get back in it, driving to the Steelers’ 32, 38 and 14 on successive possessions, only to be stopped twice on downs and once by Gary Jones’ interception.

Testaverde finally got the Browns back into the game with a 14-yard scoring pass to Mark Carrier with 10 seconds left in the half. But it wasn’t enough in a game in which Gary Anderson’s 49-yard field goal represented the only second-half scoring.

The Browns also botched a potentially pivotal third-quarter possession as Derrick Alexander’s 15-yard taunting penalty for ill-advisedly spiking the ball in Greg Lloyd’s face nullified a 14-yard catch.

Despite outgaining Pittsburgh, 331-277, and allowing only one sack to a defense that leads the NFL with 54, Cleveland didn’t seriously threaten again until Testaverde’s fourth-down incompletion from the Steeler two in the final minute.