CLEVELAND _ The Steelers held off the winless Cleveland Browns, 24-9, to snap their own four-game losing streak Sunday.
The Steelers improved to 5-5 and climbed back into a first place tie with Baltimore, which lost at Dallas. Cleveland is 0-11.
Le'Veon Bell rushed for 146 yards and a touchdown to spearhead the Steelers offense, which bogged down three of the four times it reached inside the Browns' 20, settling for three Chris Boswell field goals.
The Steelers defense had eight quarterback sacks, including one by James Harrison that gave him the Steelers career record of 77.5.
Cleveland trailed by eight and had the ball with 3:49 left at its own 13. But the Steelers' eighth sack, by Ryan Shazier, stripped quarterback Josh McCown of the ball and nose tackle Javon Hargrave recovered in the end zone for the touchdown that sealed matters.
The Browns scored a touchdown to put them within striking distance with 9:45 left in the game. It began when Lawrence Timmons hit Cody Kessler late for a personal foul that also knocked the rookie quarterback from the game.
McCown, a veteran quarterback, took over and led the touchdown drive that ended with him throwing a 14-yard pass to tight end Gary Barnidge. Kicker Cody Parkey missed the extra point and the Steelers led 17-9.
The Steelers led 17-3 after the teams traded field goals in the third quarter.
The Browns scored on their first series of the second half when Parkey kicked a 24-yard field goal and it was 14-3. Two plays earlier, Harrison sacked Kessler, giving him the Steelers record.
The Steelers countered with Boswell's 22-yard field goal after the offense stalled at the Cleveland 4. That made it four trips inside the red zone for the Steelers, just one touchdown.
Bell ran for a 1-yard touchdown with no time left in the first half as the Steelers took a 14-0 lead.
The Browns aided that final drive by committing consecutive penalties on the final two plays, both incomplete passes to Antonio Brown. Mike Tomlin gambled with five seconds left from the three and time ran out as Ben Roethlisberger's pass fell incomplete. However, a defensive holding call gave the Steelers the ball at the one with no time left.
Tomlin eschewed the field goal try and Roethlisberger's pass for Brown again fell incomplete, but this time the Browns were called for pass interference.
Given a third chance, Roethlisberger handed off from the shotgun to Bell and he easily scored up the middle. Roethlisberger's 2-point conversion pass was caught by David Johnson.
They scored on all three of their series in the first half, which they dominated.
Earlier, the Steelers put together their two longest drives of the season and had only a 6-0 lead to show for it. Both drives were bogged down late by a false start.
The longest in time came in the second quarter, covering 9:28. But on second and five at the Cleveland 34, David DeCastro was penalized for a false start and the Steelers wound up taking Boswell's 33-yard field goal.
It was similar to their only drive of the first quarter, when they took a 3-0 lead.
The Browns reached the Steelers' 38 on a 36-yard pass from rookie quarterback Kessler to Terrelle Pryor on their first drive. However, they got no closer and then Artie Burns intercepted his second pass of the season at the Steelers' 4.
The Steelers put together a drive that lasted nine minutes and 18 seconds. They traveled 82 yards on 16 plays, 79 of them by Bell. However, on second-and-one at the nine, Bell jumped and the Steelers could not overcome the 5-yard penalty, settling for Boswell's 32-yard field goal and a 3-0 lead.
