{mosimage} The Drive, The Fumble and Red Right Eighty-eight are terms that live in the memory of fans of the Cleveland Browns. After this week's Browns Ravens game The Bounce may have to be added to the list. And for once the term is a positive. For the second week in a row the Browns surrendered a big lead to a divisional opponent and for the 2nd week in a row the game came down to Phil Dawson and a plus fifty yard attempt at a filed goal.

To set the stage the Browns had built a 27 to 14 lead only to give up 16 straight points to the Ravens - the last three to give the Ravens a 30 to 27 lead with 26 seconds remaining. The Joshua Cribbs took ten seconds to carry the Ravens on his back to give the Browns great field position. A clutch catch by Braylon Edwards then put Dawson in range for the attempt. The endzone camera showed the kick sailing towards the uprights and striking the left upright. The kick then bounced to the center of the goal post and bounced back into the end zone. After a few seconds of confusion the referees signaled that the kick was no good. Shortly thereafter the head referee indicated that it appeared that the ball had passed through the uprights, hit the support and bounced back through. By that time the television audience had been able to see the play in slow motion, stop action and magnification and knew that kick had been good. Finally, five minutes after the kick, the head referee confirmed that the kick was good and summoned the teams back onto the field. The Browns received the ball in overtime, got a great return again by Joshua Cribbs and moved into field position for a game winning field goal attempt by Dawson. This once was good with no question and the Browns survived with the victory.

Now, due to the bounce of the ball and the Jets victory of the Steelers, the Browns find themselves one game out of a tie for the Division lead and with the easiest schedule in the remaining six games in the NFL.

The Browns again played just well enough to win. It took 405 yards of running by Cribbs and Rodney Poole (Poole with a 100 yard interception return of a Boller pass). It also took six sacks of Boller and along with great catches by Winslow, Edwards and Jurevicous to complete the win.

In the greater scheme of the NFL, The Bounce will only become something more than an oddity and a Sports Center highlight if the Browns continue to win and make the playoffs. The next test will be the Texans who are fresh off their win over the Saints.

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JEH45 said:

	So Judge: Don't get much browns stuff in South Florida. Are people pretty excited by a team that appears to be overachieving? Are they going to make the playoffs?
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November 20, 2007
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Lloyds Apple said:

	Not Judge but at 6-4, things could go either way. I think the steelers are 7-4. The Bengals are terrible. Gotta wonder about Pittsburgh though. Losing to the Jets---not good. If Cleveland wins the Division, it'll be story of the year unless the Pats go undefeated.
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November 20, 2007
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