Wild day, wild finish, gut-wrenching loss

11.22.2009

DETROIT - Big plays. Big drama. Heartbreak.

It took all 60 minutes - plus two plays after time had expired - for the Lions to strike the last blow in a wild one Sunday and top the Browns, 38-37.

Matthew Stafford's fifth touchdown pass of the day came on an untimed down from the Browns' 1, capping a 10-play, 88-yard drive engineered by the rookie in the final 1:46 without a timeout.

The Lions appeared to be about out of chances as they got to the Browns 32 with 8 seconds left and killed the clock. Stafford then scrambled trying to make a play and keep his team alive, and time expired as he avoided tackles and set his feet to throw.

He was blasted by C.J. Mosley, and lofted one towards the back of the endzone for Calvin Johnson. Brodney Pool intercepted it, but Hank Poteat was called for pass interference in the back of the endzone, leaving the Lions an untimed down from the 1-yard line.

Stafford, woozy from the hit, left the game and Daunte Culpepper came in for the untimed down mandated by the penalty. The Browns used their final timeout to get the defense in order, but Stafford came back and needled one through traffic to fellow rookie Brandon Pettigrew for the tying points.

Jason Hanson's extra point kick then won it, a gut-wrenching end to an otherwise entertaining game that saw the Browns' offense come alive.

"I'm just disappointed, sick with the way this thing ended," Browns head coach Eric Mangini said. "I thought (our guys) fought throughout the game, knew the game was going to go back and forth, knew they could score points, knew what we had to do defensively. We got up big, they came back, we fought back, and then to have it come down to the final play with a pass interference...I'm sick from that.

"We had plenty of opportunities, and at the end we just couldn't close it out. I'm disappointed for them and just sick about the outcome."

Brady Quinn threw four touchdown passes to four different receivers and finished with a career-best 304 yards passing. What looked to be the game winner, a 2-yarder to Michael Gaines with 5:51 to go, capped a 14-play, 75-yard scoring drive as the Browns regained the lead - a lead that was as big as 24-3 in the first quarter.

Stafford's fourth touchdown pass of the day gave the Lions their first lead of the game, 31-27, with 2:47 left in the third quarter. The 1-yard pass to Will Heller off a beautiful play-action fake capped a 10-play, 84-yard drive.

The Browns' first safety since 2007 came when Stafford was flagged for intentional grounding in the endzone while trying to avoid Jason Trusnik. The safety made it 31-29, and that remained the score midway through the fourth quarter until Gaines' touchdown catch.

Even after Gaines' TD, a Pool interception had set the Browns up with a chance to clinch it. They got one first down on a big third down pass from Quinn to Chansi Stuckey but had to punt when Quinn and Mohamed Massaquoui couldn't hook up along the sideline on third and 5.

"I thought we had a chance to win the game with that play," Mangini said.

Instead, the Lions had chances they converted despite facing difficult circumstances.

"(On the Hail Mary pass interference) I screamed, 'Throw the ball!' about six times and he just kept on making somebody else miss," Lions coach Jim Schwartz said. "That bought him some time. He took a wicked hit but he hung in there."

Mangini said calling the timeout before the untimed down was "a function of wanting to make sure we had the right personnel; we wanted to take a look at what they were going to do. We had the timeout so at that point I thought it was a good idea to use it, look at it, and get the guys in spots we thought they needed to be in."

Quinn threw three touchdowns in the first quarter as the Browns built a 24-3 lead. The 24 first-quarter points set a franchise record.

But the Lions came back with 21 unanswered points of their own, also getting three passing scores to three different players. Stafford was 10-of-16 for 270 yards in the first half; Quinn was 12-of-17 for 199 yards.

A 75-yard bomb to Johnson down the middle with 5:01 left in the second quarter tied the game.

The Browns took the lead back on a 29-yard Phil Dawson field goal, his second of the game, just before halftime.

The teams traded field goals to start the game. The track meet started with a 59-yard pass on first down from Quinn to Massaquoi, the Browns' longest play of the year, that made it 10-3.

On the next possession Quinn hit Stuckey on a pump-and-go for a 40-yard touchdown.

Eric Wright's interception and 47 yard return to the 6 set up Quinn to Joshua Cribbs in the back of the endzone to make it 24-3.

"I think we had opportunities today," Mangini said. "I think we made some of our own breaks today. I think that we didn't play well defensively. We didn't play nearly as well as we could have on special teams. There have been a lot of times where we haven't played well offensively. It's just having it finish the way it did, I'm sick for our guys."

NOTES: Lawrence Vickers left with a hamstring injury in the second half. Trusnik played some fullback in his absence...Dawson's first-drive field goal was the 217th of his career, moving him into sole possession of second place on the Browns' all-time list...Massaquoi had 4 catches for 105 yards in the first half...A pregame moment of silence was observed in memory of Stefanie Spielman, the wife of former Lions and Browns linebacker Chris Spielman, who lost her battle with cancer this week.