Ben Roethlisberger threw for 417 yards and 2 touchdowns. The Steelers never trailed in winning their third straight and improving to 4-2. The Browns slip to 1-5.

The Steelers' offense made big plays in the middle of the field and the defense harassed and hit Derek Anderson throughout the day. The Browns turned the ball over three times in the second half, twice on strip-sacks by Lawrence Timmons.

Ryan Clark's interception just in front of the goal line with 4:21 left essentially sealed it.

"I told the players there are two things that they can't do -- and we talked about this and we talked about it a lot -- and those things are turnovers and allowing big plays," Browns head coach Eric Mangini said. "Defensively, (there were) just too many big plays.

"That's who this quarterback is and that's what this offense can do."

In all, the Steelers rolled up 543 yards of offense and possessed the ball for 36:46.

The defenses dominated a scoreless first quarter, but things got wild in the second and early in the third. Roethlisberger caught fire in the second, throwing TD passes to Heath Miller and Ward. The Browns answered Ward's touchdown with Joshua Cribbs' 98-yard kickoff return touchdown, the franchise-record eighth return touchdown of his career.

The teams again traded touchdowns to start the third quarter, as the Browns drove 66 yards in six plays, getting a 43-yard pass from Anderson to Mohamed Massaquoi to make it first and goal and a 1-yard pass to Lawrence Vickers to pull within 17-14.

Roethlisberger and the Steelers came right back, though, hitting a 45-yard pass to Hines Ward and capping the drive on a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Rashard Mendenhall.

That's when things got sloppy. A Brodney Pool interception was followed by the first of two Steelers strip sacks. Willie Parker and Mendenhall each lost a fumble later in the third quarter, but the Browns weren't able to capitalize.

"There's no excuse for the turnovers," Anderson said. "To beat a team as good as the Steelers, you can't do that and set them up with a short field."

Roethlisberger was 12-of-20 for 239 yards in the first half and ended up with his second career 400-yard passing game.

"He's really good," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Roethlisberger. "He's in total command of the offense."

A Jeff Reed field goal with 7 seconds left in the second quarter provided the halftime margin of 17-7. It came three plays after a bizarre situation when Roethlisberger tried a quarterback keeper on a fourth and short play. The officials brought in the chains to measure, and the Browns' defense ran off the field celebrating as if he'd been stopped short.

But the Steelers were awarded the first down, and after what appeared to be another touchdown catch by Ward was wiped out on a booth review, Reed came on to kick the field goal.

Afterwards, referee Walt Anderson said the ball "touched the plane of the stake" and that his crew made the correct call. Roethlisberger said "it was a close play. We got lucky."

Alex Hall's first quarter fumble recovery at the Steelers' 39 put the Browns in business, but Cribbs was intercepted by Troy Polamalu late in the quarter. The Steelers responded with a big play from Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes and capped the seven-play, 85-yard drive on the 8-yard TD pass to Miller.

Cribbs also ran 6 times for 45 yards while lined up at quarterback.

"Cribbs, he's a special guy," Tomlin said. "We see it in different phases. I really respect him."

Anderson finished 9-of-24 for 122 yards. Massaquoi was the Browns' leading receiver with 5 catches for 83 yards.