Browns admit luck was on their sideline

Associated Press

BEREA

Eric Mangini’s face was drained and strangely expressionless, hardly what you would expect from a winning coach.

Seconds after Cleveland’s heart-stopping 24-23 win over Carolina on Sunday, a game decided when Panthers kicker John Kasay banged his last-second, 42-yard field-goal attempt off the left upright, a stoic Mangini wandered off the field in a daze.

He was spent. He was jubilant. He was sick to his stomach.

“A mixture of pain and happiness,” Mangini said Monday of his overriding emotion. “I was angry and happy at the same time.”

Such is life coaching the Browns, the NFL’s masters of macabre.

No team experiences victory’s thrill and defeat’s agony — in the same game — quite like this squad.

But for one of the few times this season, the Browns (4-7), riddled by injuries to their quarterbacks and saddled with a string of gut-wrenching losses, caught a break. The usually reliable Kasay, among the career leaders in field goals and points, missed.

“That was really lucky,” Browns center Alex Mack said.

And, perhaps, long overdue.

The Browns nearly gave one away, but were able to hang on, overcoming two interceptions by quarterback Jake Delhomme and another bout of brutal tackling in the final minute, misses that allowed the Panthers to move the ball close enough to give Kasay a chance.

As Kasay lined up, the Browns prepped for the worst.

“It was like ’Oh God, here we go again’,” cornerback Sheldon Brown said. “It’s one of those things where again it comes down to the last play, and you know in your heart you should not be in that situation. There’s no reason for it.

“There are plenty other games throughout the course of the season when we dominated the game for 30 minutes and we had 10 or 15 minutes where we look like the Bad News Bears.”

They’re the Bad News Browns at times.

Delhomme, back in the starting lineup to replace injured rookie Colt McCoy, threw two interception against his former team and nearly cost the Browns what should have been an easy, runaway win. His first two passes in the third quarter were picked, with Carolina’s Captain Munnerlyn returning the second 37 yards to pull the Panthers within 21-20.