“You clean up nice!” Locker neighbor Brock Hoffman said to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ left guard, who’d shed his black and gold uniform for a light gray T-shirt and jeans, and was sitting while he leaned over to pull on a pair of tan boots.

Fitting.

After Cleveland Browns defensive end and Myles Garrett replacement Jared Verse did a good bit of talking earlier in the week about plans to dominate the Steelers and take ownership of their city — one head coach Mike McCarthy adores — it was McCormick and his teammates that were made for walking.

“We’ll let our pads talk every single time,” mainstay Pittsburgh defensive tackle Cam Heyward said after sending the Browns away with a disappointing loss. “I don’t think you can ever win a game by just talking about it. You’ve gotta go out there and execute. You’ve gotta stop the run, and you’ve gotta make sure you run the ball. And that’s what it’s always been about in the AFC North.”

For once, it was a regular season installment of the Rust Belt rivalry series that meant something. The Steelers, though, put Cleveland back in its place, and pulled into first place in the division entering their bye week.

Jaylen Warren ran for 143 yards — including 51 on a first-quarter third-and-13 — while Rico Dowdle picked up 56 more. Heyward and the defense gave up only 34 yards on the ground and piled up eight sacks. It was, as left tackle Troy Fautanu put it, “Steeler football.”

Fautanu, too, canceled out Verse, who lined up across from him more often than not.

“There really was no emphasis or a target on his back,” Fautanu said. “But just knowing the words that were being said and just trying to execute the game plan, and yeah, what happened, happened.”

‘Should’ve kept his mouth shut’

Verse finished with all of one shared tackle. Steelers safety Jaquan Brisker, a STeel City native, was the most vocal about the output. The rest of his teammates shrugged Verse off — some more forcefully than others, but we’ll get there.

“He should’ve kept his mouth shut,” Brisker said. “All that talking and to come out with zero tackles, I mean, that’s bad. You didn’t stand behind what your words (were), and you didn’t stand on business, so he’s gotta look himself in the mirror and get better.”

Verse wouldn’t take back his words.

“I stand by everything I said, and as a man, you have to naturally do that,” Verse said. “I think we could’ve definitely did more to just present ourselves as the team that we are. I don’t know who the hell that team was that walked out there. … We didn’t do enough across the board, from the first quarter to the last quarter.”

Verse had made his way over to the Steelers’ side of the field during pregame, strolling on the boundary and behind Heyward, who didn’t even notice.

“There’s bigger fish to fry,” Heyward said.

Pittsburgh tight end Pat Freiermuth, who caught two passes for 35 yards and burrowed in from a yard out on a tush push right before halftime, was more out to prove his team belonged in the division’s perch than he was to shut Verse up. Fautanu got satisfaction from downing a team so familiar. There was much more substance than statement from the Steelers, who even walked up the tunnel in the postgame with a businesslike demeanor.

“We do the talking on the field,” Freiermuth said.

And, literally, only for so long.

There were back-and-forths early on, but the Steelers eventually stopped stooping to the visitors’ level.

“I honestly don’t think we were talking as much,” Fautanu said. “It was almost like we were kinda not talking on purpose, just to piss them (off). I felt like they wanted us to start chatting a bit, but we were just trying to finish the game.”

Added Fautanu: “What can you say when you’re down 27-6 or whatever the score was? There’s really not much else you can say.”

‘It’s their fault for jumping in the first place’

Right after Dowdle’s 9-yard touchdown run with just over seven minutes gone in the opening quarter, Chris Boswell lined up to boot the extra point that made it 10-0.

Trying to get his right hand on the kick, Verse pressed his left forearm on McCormick’s back and went airborne. McCormick caught him, holding onto his left leg and keeping him up before dumping him on his head.

“I really had no idea who it was,” said McCormick, whose helmet was ripped off by Verse in the process. “I just felt somebody jump, and we’re told to get jumpers’ hands down. That’s really it.”

Verse felt there was something more behind it, railing against the block even after McCormick was tagged for an unnecessary roughness penalty. He hammered home that he believes the Steelers’ line — McCormick included — plays cheap.

“I had jumped in the air to try to block the kick, he sweeped my legs in the air, ended up landing on my head,” Verse said. “But that’s football. I mean, I’m very upset about it, and obviously, if this wasn’t football, I would’ve reacted a different way. But you’ve gotta kinda handle that.”

Fautanu, of course, sided with his guy.

“Whoever’s jumping, it’s their fault for jumping in the first place,” Fautanu said. “That’s what we were trying to tell the ref, but he wasn’t hearing us. … I’m sure, going forward, Mason’s gonna continue to do it. I mean, what else are you gonna do? Let a guy jump on your back? Like, what are you supposed to do?”

Browns head coach Todd Monken knows how it looks that his team talked like it did only to be overpowered. The lasting image of this chapter of the feud will be McCormick disposing of Verse in that very way.

“I can only say that our guys fight, they compete,” Monken said. “But certainly, as well know, ultimately, whether it’s me or our team, it’s not what you say, it’s what you do, and how you play. And that’s in life. That’s not a Jared Verse thing. That’s everything. It’s what we do, not what we say. And we did not do the things today that give you a chance to win.

“And when that happens, the scoreboard’s gonna look like that — and then you’ve gotta eat it.”