CLEVELAND -The pain finally subsided in Lee Suggs' neck long enough to take some hurt out of Cleveland's bruised season.
Suggs, who sat out Cleveland's first three games with a neck stinger, rushed for 82 yards and scored a touchdown in the fourth quarter, leading the Browns to a 17-13 win over the Washington Redskins yesterday.
From his first carry of the season, a 25-yard burst in the first quarter, the speedy Suggs gave the Browns (2-2) the spark their ground game had been missing.
Man it's good to have him back
said tight end Aaron Shea, who had a 15-yard TD catch in the third quarter.
The Browns, who lost starters Kellen Winslow Jr. and Courtney Brown for the year with injuries, were in danger of digging a deep early-season hole and desperate for a win.
And although it certainly wasn't a thing of beauty, they got one.
We just had to have this; we needed a win said defensive end Kenard Lang. It's really big. Look at me; I'm smiling now. I'm just happy that we won.
Jeff Garcia went 14-of-21 for 195 yards and a TD for the Browns, who didn't secure the win until Washington's Laveranues Coles fumbled with 2:08 left.
The Redskins (1-3) can pin their third straight loss on going just 1-for-11 on third downs, mental mistakes and a costly fumble by Clinton Portis on the first play after halftime that allowed Cleveland to quickly tie it.
My fumble changed the momentum said Portis. All of a sudden
we lost control of the game.
Mark Brunell couldn't get it back as Washington's offense sputtered again behind its new quarterback. Brunell finished 17-of-38 for 192 yards, but was unable to get into any rhythm because Cleveland's defense shut down Portis and the Washington coach's headsets and sideline phones were malfunctioning.
It made it tough to communicate
Brunell said. We had to go to hand signals. But the headsets didn't cause the fumbles or the overthrown passes. We made mistakes.
Portis said the Browns had the perfect game plan for Washington.
Defensive guys were calling out our plays
he said. It was like running into a brick wall. They were hitting the gap before us and after us.
Clinging to their four-point lead, the Browns faked a field goal, but holder Derrick Frost was stopped short of a first down. Brunell then completed a 13-yard pass to Coles, who fumbled as he was being taken down, and Browns safety Earl Little recovered.
I fumbled the game away for us
Coles said.
Garcia, who played poorly in Cleveland's two previous losses, then only had to kneel down because the Redskins had used up their timeouts, which also was a problem in last week's loss to Dallas.
Other than his 25-yarder the first time he touched it, Suggs wasn't very flashy -just efficient.
He did a great job
finding creases
using his fullback and creating positive runs
Garcia said.
