Battle of Ohio

By STEVE DOERSCHUK

Browns relieved;

Anderson saves the day and his job

CINCINNATI — It wasn’t just a win. It was a lifeboat with no breaths left. So what if it was against the Bengals?

The Browns needed a sunbeam in the worst way. Beating winless Cincinnati, 20-12, gave them the best feeling.

“It’s big,” running back Jamal Lewis said. “Just to break that streak. We haven’t won a game since ‘Dee-cember.’ ”

It was that big. Lewis needed to re-invent the name of the month when the Browns went 10-6 by beating the 49ers, a week after losing a game and a playoff berth here.

“Where we were at as a team right now, yeah, it was big,” said Bengal-turned-Brown Eric Steinbach. “You go 0-4 into the bye, it’s gonna be a long week, and then a long other week going into the Giants game. We get this win right now ... we’re back in it. Keep rollin’.”

It hurt to watch the Battle of Ohio at times.

It pained the Bengals to play without injured Carson Palmer, who was 6-2 against the Browns.

The replacement was Ryan Fitzpatrick, four years removed from Harvard, three years removed from his only regular season game action in the NFL — and now 0-4 as a starter.

Palmer told Fitzpatrick Saturday night that his throwing elbow was too sore for him to play. Coach Marvin Lewis adjusted on the fly.

“You don’t try too much,” Lewis said.

The Browns had been giving up 347 yards a game. Without Palmer, the Bengals gained 211. Cleveland’s defense dared Fitzpatrick to throw. He did, 35 times, for just 156 yards, and at the steep price of three interceptions (by Eric Wright, Mike Adams and Terry Cousin) and three sacks (Shaun Rogers, Kamerion Wimbley and Alex Hall).

“They definitely tried to blitz more,” Bengals left tackle Levi Jones said. “They gave us more sub looks, more looks of four down-linemen instead of their normal 3-4. That put them in a better position to blitz.”

Some Browns fans were ready to blitz Coach Romeo Crennel when Derek Anderson trailed 6-3 at halftime and — having passed for 27 yards — remained at QB instead of Brady Quinn.

The Browns drove into Cincinnati territory on their first two possessions but came away with just a 24-yard field goal by Phil Dawson.

Anderson’s first series of the third quarter ended with an interception. Why didn’t Crennel go to Quinn then?

“You have to get a good feel as the game goes along,” he said. “D.A. was harassed a little bit on the interception. It might have been a good play if he wasn’t harassed.

“I decided to give him another chance. He took advantage and finished out the game on a good note.”

The sellout crowd booed when the Bengals burned their third timeout with 13 minutes left in a game and leading 6-3, with Cleveland inside the 5.

Anderson tried two jumpballs to Braylon Edwards. The first didn’t work in the right corner of the end zone. On the second, Edwards outmaneuvered cornerback Leon Hall on the opposite side for a touchdown.

The Browns led 10-6.

Points, almost impossible to come by through 17 quarters, suddenly came in a bunch. Cincinnati running back Chris Perry fumbled the ball to safety Mike Adams. Anderson fired a first-down strike of 20-yard to Kellen Winslow Jr. over the middle.

Lewis dove a yard for a touchdown and a 17-6 lead with 11:06 left.

Fitzpatrick drove the Bengals 59 yards for a touchdown that made it 17-12 with 7:46 left.

It was easy for Browns fans to think the worst when Cincinnati got the ball back with three minutes left, with Fitzpatrick seeming to have hit a groove.

Rookie seventh-round pick Alex Hall beat right tackle Stacy Andrews and dove at the legs of Fitzpatrick, a Round 7 pick of the Rams in 2005. Fitzpatrick fell and fumbled. Defensive end Corey Williams recovered to basically ice the win.

“Hall played hard all day,” Levi Jones said. “He’s a kid from small college, but he plays big.”

The Battle of Ohio was a small game on the NFL radar. For the winner, it was huge.