CLEVELAND — The last time Ben Roethlisberger played the Browns, his night began with a frantic chase after the ball was snapped over his head into the end zone. He ended it sitting on the bench contemplating his future.

On Sunday, the Steelers quarterback returns to the rivalry he tilted decidedly for nearly two decades.

“It will be fun,” Big Ben said. “And, it's Halloween.”

That's a little scary.

The Steelers (3-3) swear they won't have vengeance in mind as much as keeping their season rolling in the right direction when they face the Browns (4-3), who put an exclamation point on their turnaround in January by winning at Pittsburgh in the playoffs.

Cleveland's 48-37 wild-card victory — a game quarantined Browns coach Kevin Stefanski watched from his home basement after a positive COVID-19 test — was the Browns' first in the postseason since 1994 and seemed to signal that one of pro football's fiercest football feuds was evening out some.

And although he's 24-2-1 against the Browns since 2004, Roethlisberger, who grew up in Ohio and is nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career, feels his personal record doesn't reflect the permanent competitiveness in the Cleveland-Pittsburgh series.

Roethlisberger hasn't said if this will be his last season. Whether it is or not, he won't be making many more trips to Cleveland, where he has gone 11-2-1 and in some ways symbolized the Browns' lack of success as a player they passed on in the draft.

The roles were reversed in last season's playoff meeting as Roethlisberger couldn't recover the early errant snap, which the Browns recovered for a TD just 14 seconds in and built a 28-0 lead.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said his team won't use that loss, painful as it may have been, as motivation.

“We've got a lot riding on this game,” he said. “We're going to play a really good team in their venue. It's 2021. ... In the game of football, things change year in and year out and seemingly low-hanging fruit is oftentimes irrelevant to some of the people in the room.

Browns QB Baker Mayfield will give it a go and start after missing last week with a damaged left shoulderMayfield, who has a torn labrum and fracture in his nonthrowing shoulder, practiced this week with a new stabilizing harness anchoring his injured left shoulder.