CLEVELAND (AP) — The Pittsburgh Steelers have had multiple chances to clinch the AFC North.
They’re down to their final one.
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Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin calls a timeout during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Aaron Rodgers was limited to 168 yards passing and failed to lead a scoring drive on six second-half possessions, allowing the Cleveland Browns to top Pittsburgh 13-6 on Sunday.
The Steelers (9-7) could have locked up a playoff berth with a victory over last-place Cleveland, or if the Baltimore Ravens (8-8) had lost to Green Bay on Saturday. The Ravens remained alive with a 41-24 triumph over the Packers.
As a result, Pittsburgh will host the Ravens in Week 18 with the division crown and the final AFC postseason spot on the line in a winner-take-all matchup.
“The competitor in me is saying, ‘We lost this game. We lost a chance to clinch today,’” Steelers defensive tackle Cam Heyward said. “But it’s also like, ‘Bring it on. Baltimore is coming in.’
“Winner takes all. Let’s win it at home.”
The Steelers lost in Cleveland for the fourth year in a row and didn’t reach the end zone against the Browns for the first time since Dec. 10, 2009. Chris Boswell made a pair of field goals in the second quarter before missing a 54-yarder early in the fourth.
Rodgers completed 21 of 39 passes without an interception, but his team did not score a touchdown for just the seventh time in his 256 starts over 21 seasons. He is 1-6 in those games.
“We’ve handled adversity well when we had to play our best football, other than today,” Rodgers said. “I have full confidence we’ll go home and win next week. It’s not difficult (to bounce back). It’s our job, playing all 17 games.”
Andre Szmyt accounted for the only points in the second half, making a 33-yard field goal with 1:40 remaining to extend Cleveland’s lead to 13-6. Shedeur Sanders threw a 28-yard TD pass to fellow rookie Harold Fannin Jr. to put the Browns up 10-0 in the first quarter.
Though Pittsburgh was out of timeouts with 100 seconds left, Rodgers found tight end Pat Freiermuth for consecutive gains of 29 and 11 yards to set up a first-and-goal from the 10. A 3-yard toss to Adam Thielen was followed by three straight misfires to Marquez Valdes-Scantling.
Pro Bowl cornerback Denzel Ward broke up Rodgers’ fourth down throw in the end zone, making some contact with Valdes-Scantling, before being mobbed by his Browns teammates.
“It was definitely interference,” Rodgers said.
Valdes-Scantling was targeted a game-high nine times by Rodgers because both of his starting wide receivers were inactive. DK Metcalf was suspended by the NFL for an on-field incident with a fan in Detroit and Calvin Austin III had a hamstring injury.
Tight end Darnell Washington also was lost in the second quarter with a broken arm. Rodgers called them “three impact players for us,” but Steelers coach Mike Tomlin refused to accept their injuries as a reason for the loss.
“We get challenged with the attrition component all the time and we make no excuses regarding that,” Tomlin said. “We have capable men. We adapt, adjust and keep moving.
“It's back to work for us. We've been here before and certainly have a big week ahead of us before the big game in Acrisure Stadium next weekend.”
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Pittsburgh Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers speaks during a news conference after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin calls a timeout during the second half of an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers walks off the field after an NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/David Richard)
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday insisted Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace deal as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort, but he acknowledged the negotiations are complex and could still break down, leaving the war dragging on for years.
The president’s statements came after the leaders met for talks following what Trump said was an “excellent,” two-and-a-half-hour phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine launched the war nearly four years ago. Trump insisted he believed Putin still wants peace, even as Russia launched another round of attacks on Ukraine while Zelenskyy flew to the United States for the latest round of negotiations.
“Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump said during a late afternoon news conference as he stood with Zelenskyy after their meeting. He repeatedly praised his counterpart as “brave.”
Trump and Zelenskyy both acknowledged thorny issues remain, including whether Russia can keep Ukrainian territory it controls, as well as security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure it's not invaded again in the future. After their discussion, they called a wide group of European leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland.
Zelenskyy said Trump had agreed to host European leaders again, possibly at the White House, sometime in January. Trump said the meeting could be in Washington or “someplace.”
Zelenskyy thanked Trump for his work. “Ukraine is ready for peace,” he said.
Trump said he'd follow the meeting with another call to Putin. Earlier Sunday, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the Trump-Putin call was initiated by the U.S. side and was “friendly, benevolent and businesslike.” Ushakov said Trump and Putin agreed to speak again “promptly” after Trump’s meeting with Zelenskyy.
But Ushakov added that a “bold, responsible, political decision is needed from Kyiv” on the fiercely contested Donbas region in eastern Ukraine and other matters in dispute for there to be a “complete cessation” of hostilities.
Both leaders identified deciding the future of the Donbas region as a major sticking point.
Trump said the parties were inching closer to agreement. “That's a very tough issue but one that I think will get resolved,” he said.
Zelenskyy said: “Our attitude is very clear. That's why President Trump said this is a very tough question and, of course, we have with Russia different positions on it.”
Trump said, however, that he still believes Putin is “very serious” about ending the war, even as Russia continued striking targets in Ukraine as Zelenskyy traveled to the U.S. Trump said, “I believe Ukraine has made some very strong attacks also.”
He held out the possibility that negotiations could still fall apart.
“In a few weeks, we will know one way or the other, I think," Trump said. "We could have something where one item that you’re not thinking about is a big item, breaks it up. Look, it’s been a very difficult negotiation. Very detailed.”
Trump and Zelenskyy's sit-down underscored the apparent progress made by Trump’s top negotiators in recent weeks as the sides traded draft peace plans to end the fighting. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal negotiators have discussed is “about 90% ready” — echoing a figure, and the optimism, that U.S. officials conveyed when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin this month.
During the recent talks, the U.S. agreed to offer certain security guarantees to Ukraine similar to those offered to other members of NATO. The proposal came as Zelenskyy said he was prepared to drop his country’s bid to join the security alliance if Ukraine received NATO-like protection that would be designed to safeguard it against future Russian attacks.
Zelenskyy also spoke on Christmas Day with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said they discussed “certain substantive details" and cautioned “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and “the weeks ahead may also be intensive.”
The U.S. president has been working to end the war in Ukraine for much of his first year back in office, showing irritation with both Zelenskyy and Putin while publicly acknowledging the difficulty of ending the conflict. Gone are the days when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted that he could resolve the fighting in a day. Indeed, on Sunday, Trump referred multiple times to the complexity of the negotiations.
After hosting Zelenskyy at the White House in October, Trump demanded that both Russia and Ukraine halt fighting and “stop at the battle line,” implying that Moscow should be able to keep the territory it has seized from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said last week that he would be willing to withdraw troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.
Putin has publicly said he wants all the areas in four key regions that have been captured by his forces, as well as the Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also has insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas in eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces haven’t captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all those demands.
The Kremlin also wants Ukraine to abandon its bid to join NATO. It warned that it wouldn’t accept the deployment of any troops from members of the military alliance and would view them as a “legitimate target.”
Putin also has said Ukraine must limit the size of its army and give official status to the Russian language, demands he has made from the outset of the conflict.
Ushakov told the business daily Kommersant this month that Russian police and national guard would stay in parts of Donetsk -– one of the two major areas, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbas region — even if they become a demilitarized zone under a prospective peace plan.
Ushakov cautioned that trying to reach a compromise could take a long time. He said U.S. proposals that took into account Russian demands had been “worsened” by alterations proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.
Trump has been somewhat receptive to Putin’s demands, arguing that the Russian president can be persuaded to end the war if Kyiv agrees to cede Ukrainian land in the Donbas region and if Western powers offer economic incentives to bring Russia back into the global economy.
Kim reported from Washington and Morton from London. Associated Press writers Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Nicholas Riccardi in Denver and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump attends a joint news conference with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy following a meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attends a joint news conference with President Donald Trump following a meeting his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands at the start of a joint news conference following a meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump greets Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Karen Blake of Ft. Lauderdale, poses with a sign at the "Rally in Support of Ukraine" organized by the Ukrainian Association of Florida as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in West Palm Beach, Fla., Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
President Donald Trump waves as he departs Trump International Golf Club, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A psychologist of a rescue team helps en elderly woman at the hospice which was damaged after a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Rescuers put fragments of a body of the victim into a plastic bag after Russian drone hit a multi-storey apartment building during massive missile and drone attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
President Donald Trump pumps his fist at Christmas Eve dinner at his Mar-a-Lago club, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Prime Minister Mark Carney, left, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hold a news conference in Halifax, N.S. on Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025.(Riley Smith /The Canadian Press via AP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
