Mark Madden: What was Mike Tomlin thinking on Steelers' fake field-goal attempt?

When the Steelers visited Cleveland on Sunday, it was a battle of traditional rivals, mediocre teams and a whole lot of idiocy.

The dumbness manifested itself at many levels:

• Thirteen penalties in all, a few more that canceled each other out and a few more that went uncalled. (It was a stupid game and a dirty game.)

• Lots of damaging drops, not least by Cleveland egomaniacs Odell Beckham Jr. and Jarvis Landry. (They’re not winners.)

• Cleveland entered Sunday as the NFL’s top rushing team but ran the ball just 23 times, nine fewer than the Steelers.

• Browns sack artist Myles Garrett showed up dressed for Halloween as the Grim Reaper, then had just one sack. (Guess they were out of Invisible Man costumes.)

But the single most moronic of the day’s events took place late in the first half and might haunt the rest of the Steelers’ season.

The fake field-goal try that ended up with kicker Chris Boswell concussed put the “duh” in dumb. Boswell might as well have tossed Mike Tomlin’s brain.

It’s glossed over because the Steelers won and because the get-along gang that covers the Steelers very rarely criticizes the coach.

But what the heck was Tomlin thinking?

Putting Boswell at risk was a no-no. The Steelers couldn’t kick after that. It took having a legit kicker out of their decision-making. Boswell can be replaced for next week, sure — by some scrub who couldn’t get one of the NFL’s other 31 kicking jobs.

The game ended up 15-10. It was going to be low-scoring. That was evident at that juncture. Points were at a premium. Take a 6-3 lead into halftime and let your elite defense win the game. (The latter is what ultimately happened, anyway.)

But if you want to go for it on fourth down, do it with your Hall of Fame quarterback as opposed to your kicker standing with the ball like a deer in headlights till he gets dehorned. Roethlisberger is a better bet to make a play and not die.

Also, if you want to go for it on fourth down, call a better play prior than a draw on third-and-17, a decision that set you up for a field goal you didn’t kick.

When you run a draw on third-and-17 and then fake a field goal, it looks like you yanked the fake out of your backside as opposed to having it planned when you ran the draw. (That’s likely exactly what happened. The fake after the draw is random and insane.)

Boswell got roughed on the fake. There should have been a flag. That doesn’t excuse the decision.

This is just bad coaching. No matter what Tomlin apologists say, he has got to do better.

This can all be brushed under the rug because the Steelers won even if Boswell doesn’t remember that. (Will somebody answer the phone?)

Big things are on the horizon because the next two games (home vs. Chicago and Detroit) seem like locks, which gets the Steelers to 6-3.

That will be the most deceptive 6-3 since the Steelers were 11-0.

Then the games get difficult. But that won’t matter because the Steelers will have kept interest alive all year, might finish with a winning record — did you know Tomlin has never had a losing season? — and will, at the very least, be respectable in Roethlisberger’s farewell campaign.

Unless Roethlisberger plays in 2022. Don’t rule that out.

He can be Aaron Rodgers’ backup.

One palatable piece of reality: The Steelers really do have an elite defense.

They might do even better with elite coaching. But the dreck that did its level best to sabotage Sunday’s win is nothing resembling that.

Tomlin likes to say he doesn’t live in his fears. But that’s just an empty platitude and, in this case, an excuse to be indescribably dumb.