CLEVELAND — Here's hoping Mike Tomlin didn't spend too much time working on that NFL Coach of the Year speech.

The feel-good vibes that have surrounded the Steelers' season — all of those correct buttons pushed and sticky situations navigated — backfired on Tomlin on Thursday night during what has become an all-too-common theme of his tenure.

A humiliating loss to an inferior team, this time in the familiar setting of Cleveland's Huntington Bank Field and by a 24-19 score to the previously 2-8 Browns.

Talk about spoiling a sterling start.

"They made more plays over the course of 60 minutes," Tomlin said. "Obviously, we have to own our portions of it."

It's a shame you can't put them on Craigslist or something.

The Browns snapped the Steelers' five-game winning streak. Pittsburgh also dropped to 0-8 all time in road Thursday night games against teams in their division. Amazingly, Tomlin's Steelers have lost five of their past six games in Cleveland.

What the Steelers must own from this one was substantial, too, starting with some poor decision-making by Tomlin, who actually entered the game as the betting favorite to win his first coach of the year award.

A small sampling of things that will likely rub Steelers fans the wrong way:

— Seemingly getting caught in between toward the end of the first half. Tomlin called a timeout after a second-down pass but then allowed around 40 seconds to run off the clock before Cleveland called timeout and kicked a field goal.

Just call the timeout, get the ball back with some time, and give your team a chance.

— It's not just all Tomlin and likely involves offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, but the fade route thrown to Cordarrelle Patterson once the Steelers took the lead in the fourth quarter made zero sense. George Pickens, Pat Freiermuth, anyone?

— Justin Fields randomly throwing deep to Pickens with the Steelers trying to salt away the game.

— Not instructing his players to allow Browns running back Nick Chubb to score on a 7-yard run with 1:43 to go, a move that would've afforded the Steelers more than 50 seconds to answer.

— Burning a timeout after a confusing sequence where Tomlin thought it was intentional grounding and deciding to hastily accept the penalty, another decision that can certainly be questioned.

If you decline, it's an easier field goal. If you accept, you're obviously giving the Browns another shot.

"We wanted to move them 5 yards back," Tomlin said. "They were potentially kicking into the wind, so we wanted to stop 'em and make the field goal a longer one."

The decision, the same as many on this wintry night, turned out to be the wrong one, as Jameis Winston found wide receiver Jerry Jeudy 15 yards to convert on third-and-6, and Chubb scored the go-ahead touchdown with 0:57 left.

"Missed opportunities," Cam Heyward said. "We have to eat it. They made more plays at the end.

"I know everybody is pretty [upset] about the loss, but we have to learn from it and be better next time."

It also wasn't simply about binary decisions such as these, but it's Tomlin's job to have the Steelers ready to play on the road — and against a lousy team — where the biggest conversation topic has been the potential firing of coach Kevin Stefanski and other goofy Cleveland talk.

That didn't happen.

It was a trap game, and the Steelers fell right into it, torpedoing their shot at the No. 1 seed in the AFC in the process.

Think about it: They needed this one to keep pace with the Chiefs and Bills. Now, they're facing an uphill climb — and doing so with plenty of questions before traveling to Cincinnati in about 10 days.

The pass protection was rough early on, as defensive end Myles Garrett did his part to wreck the game. As much as Steelers fans might hate the guy, he was incredible with three sacks, five total tackles and a forced fumble, a solid answer to the T.J. Watt kerfuffle this week.

Cleveland finished with four sacks of Russell Wilson, who did complete 21 of 28 passes for 270 yards, a touchdown and a 116.7 rating.

Still, it wasn't enough to correct some drive-sustaining issues that plagued the Steelers early. A missed Chris Boswell field goal on the first drive — albeit from a hard-to-say-much 58 yards — then turning it over on downs.

It was the first of two of those for the Steelers, who lost yards both times. They have to figure out how to sustain drives better.

"They made a few plays," Wilson said. "Myles made a few plays. I thought we moved the ball at different moments, but we have to stay consistent."

As Wilson said, this was a game the Steelers should have won — and not only because they forced three turnovers and had the lead in the fourth quarter of a game against a woebegone opponent. Their 8-2 start should've opened the group's collective eyes to what's possible should the Steelers take care of business.

That didn't happen.

The Steelers started slow on offense, made too many mistakes, botched a bunch of decisions and left Cleveland in the middle of the night with another unsightly blemish suffered here.

The reason starts at the top.

"It's painful, but it's life in this business," Tomlin said. "We'll take a look at the tape and learn from it. We're in the midst of some thick AFC North action. No rest for the weary. We have a big one coming up."

Can't get here soon enough, honestly.

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