BEREA, Ohio -- Hue Jackson may have been caught off guard by Josh Gordon starting the Steelers game -- against his wishes -- but Tyrod Taylor wasn't.

"No, I was not (surprised),'' Taylor said Wednesday. "How could I be surprised? I know the gameplan."

Apparently, someone forgot to fill in Jackson, who had adamantly stated on several occasions over the past two weeks that Gordon wouldn't be in on the first play because the receivers who had been here deserved that honor.

He chalked it up to 'a mistake' and 'a miscommunication' with offensive coordinator Todd Haley, and emphasized that they've worked through it and it's over.

But Gordon also admitted Wednesday he was very surprised to start after what he had been told.

"Yeah, actually I was. I was,'' he said. "Yeah, I was definitely surprised."

When did Gordon know he was going in for the first play of the 21-21 tie?

"Uh, really, like right before the offense went out on the field,'' he said. I think I heard one of the coaches mention it during pregame, but I wasn't really too sure about it, that didn't really make sense at the time. And then right before the offense went out, they told me to go out there, I was, 'ok, all right.'"

He acknowledged that he thought Haley would use the jumbo formation -- one receiver split wide and three tight ends stacked on the other side -- a few plays in.

Was he then surprised to be off the field for the rest of that drive and the rest of the second?

"Ummm, not really, not at that point,'' he said. "No. I think we got back into the game plan and I know I was going to get my opportunity at some point in time.

Gordon, who played 69 snaps for 78 percent of the offensive plays, acknowledged it was a halftime adjustment to get him on the field more instead of rookie Antonio Callaway.

"It was discussed at halftime, we were going to switch up the game plan a little bit, implement me a little more, see what we could do to stretch the field, isolate the corner and see if we can get going down the middle of the field," he said. "So I was prepared for it, we make adjustments throughout the course of the game, like on the fly, and we have to adapt to it as quick as possible."

Gordon was targeted only three times and caught one pass -- the 17-yard TD plucked off the helmet of Cameron Sutton -- that tied it 21-21 with 1:58 in regulation.