Browns win another one on Monday Night Football

Dawsons leg wins another one for Cleveland

The Cleveland Browns narrowly averted a third consecutive late-game collapse on Monday night, emerging from a frantic fourth quarter at Buffalo with a 29-27 victory over the Bills.

Phil Dawson kicked the winning 56-yard field goal for the Browns with 1:39 left, and Buffalo’s Rian Lindell missed a 47-yarder with 38 seconds remaining that would have put the Bills back in the lead.

“We talked to our players all during the week about you never know which play makes a difference in the game, so you have to play all of them like it’s the last play or like it’s the most important play,” Browns coach Romeo Crennel said. “And I think my guys did that tonight. They played hard.”

With the victory, Cleveland improved to 4-6 and avoided becoming the first team in NFL history to lose three straight games after leading each of them by 13 points or more. After blowing a 27-13 lead in a 37-27 loss to Baltimore on Nov. 2 and then squandering a 23-10 advantage in a 34-30 setback against Denver on Nov. 6, the Browns managed to fritter away a 13-0 lead on Monday, falling behind the Bills 27-26 when Trent Edwards scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 2:25 left.

Unlike the previous two games, however, the Browns were able to battle back, as quarterback Brady Quinn engineered a 38-yard drive that resulted in Dawson’s 56-yard scoring kick, which was his fifth field goal of the game and the longest of his 10-year NFL career.

“You gotta take your hat off to Phil,” Quinn said about Dawson. “All night, it’s frustrating as an offense to not score a touchdown. He just comes through. He’s just as consistent as can be and as clutch as can be, and you really can’t thank him enough or appreciate him enough for what he does for this team.”

Quinn completed 14 of 36 passes for 185 yards in his second NFL start. He connected on only 1 of 8 throws in the first quarter, when the Browns offense produced just six points on two field goals despite being given good field position thanks to three interceptions by the Cleveland defense.

Quinn began to find a rhythm early in the second quarter, when he threw a 14-yard completion to tight end Kellen Winslow and then connected with receiver Braylon Edwards for gains of 20, 18 and 10 yards. Joshua Cribbs capped the 96-yard, 12-play drive when he took a handoff on an end-around and scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to put the Browns ahead 13-0.

Buffalo quickly responded with a 12-yard touchdown on a screen pass from Trent Edwards to Marshawn Lynch. The Bills then closed to within 13-10 on a 26-yard field goal by Lindell on the last play of the first half.

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After the teams traded field goals during the third quarter, the fourth period was packed with big plays and drama.

Browns running back Jerome Harrison broke free for a 72-yard touchdown dash on the opening play of the final quarter, and Bills rookie Leodis McKelvin answered by returning the ensuing kickoff 98 yards into the end zone.

After Dawson’s fourth field goal gave the Browns a 26-20 lead with 11:32 left, the Bills went ahead for the first time when a 28-yard run by Lynch set up a 1-yard sneak for a touchdown by Trent Edwards with 2:25 remaining.

Trailing 27-26, Quinn and the Browns took possession at their own 33 following a kickoff return by Cribbs.

“I told him it was the same situation we had last week,” Crennel said in describing his sideline conversation with Quinn prior to the winning drive. “We needed a score. We needed at least a field goal. I think that quarterbacks, if they’re going to be able to be good in this league, they have to be able to move the team and produce in that situation.”

Quinn began the drive with a 12-yard completion to Braylon Edwards. Two plays later, Winslow caught a 16-yard pass from Quinn to move the Browns to the Buffalo 39 at the two-minute warning. It turned out to be all the yardage Cleveland would get, but it also was all Dawson would need.

After three incomplete passes, Crennel called upon Dawson to attempt a 56-yard field goal with the game on the line.

“The decision was if you don’t kick it and you go for it and you don’t make it, then you’re not going to win,” Crennel said. “But if you kick it and you make it, then you’re ahead in the game. So that was the deal. We felt like it was within his range and so we decided to try it.”

Dawson was grateful for the opportunity.

“On the spur of the moment, you gotta be confident,” Dawson said. “So as soon as we threw the incomplete pass on third down, I was ready to go and gave Romeo a nod, and he had the confidence to send me out there, which I appreciate. And we were able to get the job done.”

Dawson’s end-over-end kick split the uprights, putting the Browns in front 29-27 with 1:39 left.

The Bills still had one more shot, and they quickly moved to the Cleveland 34 on a 22-yard pass from Trent Edwards to Robert Royal. After handing the ball to Lynch on three consecutive running plays, Buffalo sent out Lindell on fourth down for a 47-yard field goal try.

Lindell’s kick had the distance but sailed wide of the right upright.

The loss was the fourth in a row for the Bills (5-5), who fell to last place in the AFC East behind New England, the New York Jets and Miami.

Buffalo will play at Kansas City (1-9) on Sunday, while the Browns will host the Houston Texans (3-7).

By Tom Kessler
ProFootball-fans.com Cleveland Browns Correspondent