Green with envy

By Tony Grossi

Cleveland Plain Dealer

CINCINNATI

One quarterback threw to his No. 1 receiver on his team’s most crucial offensive play, and the receiver dropped it.

The other quarterback threw to his No. 1 receiver on his team’s most crucial offensive play, and the receiver made a breathtaking catch.

That’s how the final two minutes broke down in the Browns’ 23-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. Close but no cigar. One play away. One playmaker away.

The Browns fell to 4-7. Sweeping the season series, the Bengals rose to 7-4 and kept hold of the sixth and final spot in the AFC playoffs with five games to go.

“It came down to who would make a play at the end,’ said Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson.

With the score tied at 20, Greg Little’s drop on third down — his fourth of the game — forced the Browns to decide between a punt and a long field goal. Coach Pat Shurmur chose to try a 55-yard kick into the wind with 1:55 to play.

Phil Dawson had made a 54-yard kick going the other way and one, he said, from 61 yards in warmups in the same direction as his potential game-winner. The last thought on anyone’s mind was another bad snap from Ryan Pontbriand, but that’s what happened.

Pontbriand skidded the snap along the ground. Just as in a painful loss to St. Louis two weeks ago, holder Brad Maynard did a good job setting up the hold. But Dawson’s timing was wrecked again and his kick was short and way off the mark.

“I think it’s safe to say a 55-yarder in that situation, into the wind, everything needed to be smooth,” said Dawson.

After the miss, the Browns’ defense forced the Bengals to third-and-8. Quarterback Andy Dalton had receivers A.J. Green and Andre Caldwell line up to his left and sent them to the middle of the field. Caldwell, in the slot, ran straight down the middle. Green, from the outside, beat Joe Haden on an inside move and crossed to the middle 25 yards downfield.

Dalton was pressured by tackle Ahtyba Rubin, but he got the ball away in time. His pass had good elevation from the start and arrived on a clothesline. The two Bengals receivers, plus Haden and cornerback Dimitri Patterson, were all in close vicinity. Green soared above the others and made the catch at the Browns’ 30.

“He came out of nowhere,” said safety Mike Adams, who was a few yards deeper down field. “I saw him at the last minute in the air and he just snatched it.”

Haden chased down Green and knocked him out of bounds at the 2.

“You can take chances with [Green]. If I put the ball around him, he will go and make a play on it,’ said Dalton, who was 21 of 31 for 270 yards.

The Browns’ Colt McCoy had the better first half, throwing for touchdowns of 24 yards to Jordan Norwood and 3 yards to Little. The Browns held a 17-7 lead at halftime as the return of running back Peyton Hillis had a noticeable impact on McCoy’s ability to get the ball downfield. Hillis received more playing time than expected because Montario Hardesty tweaked his calf muscle injury in warmups. Hillis had 42 yards on 10 carries in the first half.

But the offense slowed to a crawl after halftime except for their first possession, on which they moved 34 yards to set up Dawson’s 54-yard field goal.