Blocked field goal the deciding factor

The Raiders' field is a relic, a gridiron painted on a baseball diamond.

<p class="MsoNormal">Press box TV sets played the baseball game while football captains walked out for Sunday's coin toss on the dirt where second base would be.

<p class="MsoNormal">At that moment, on TV, the Indians clinched a division title against Oakland back in Cleveland.

<p class="MsoNormal">Three hours later, Phil Dawson lined up on the A's infield with a chance to make it a grand slam of an autumn Sunday for Northeast Ohio.

<p class="MsoNormal">Trailing 26-24, the Browns moved 69 yards in 61 seconds to set up a 40-yard field goal try with three seconds left.

<p class="MsoNormal">Snap. Kick. Good. Browns win?

<p class="MsoNormal">"I didn't hear the whistle," Dawson said. "I thought we had won the game."

<p class="MsoNormal">Leigh Bodden, Kellen Winslow Jr. and Braylon Edwards watched the kick together on the Browns' sideline.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We were talking on it, praying on it, holding hands," Edwards said.

<p class="MsoNormal">Added Bodden, "I saw the ball go through the uprights. I thought we won."

<p class="MsoNormal">Except Oakland Head Coach Lane Kiffin foiled the Browns exactly the way he had been ruined by Denver's Mike Shanahan a week earlier.

<p class="MsoNormal">Kiffin called a timeout just before the snap. Dawson's kick was a dead ball.

<p class="MsoNormal">On the re-kick, 6-foot-6 Tommy Kelly swatted the ball backward to preserve Oakland's win.

<p class="MsoNormal">A week earlier at Denver, Oakland's Sebastian Janikowski made a 52-yard field goal to give the Raiders an apparent 23-20 win. But Shanahan had sneaked in a timeout.

<p class="MsoNormal">Janikowski missed the re-kick, and the Broncos went on to win.

<p class="MsoNormal">"Oh, yeah, this one was for Mike," Kiffin said. "Thanks, Mike."

<p class="MsoNormal">Dawson's holder was Scott Player, a replacement for injured Dave Zastudil, a cool, 37-year-old veteran.

<p class="MsoNormal">"We practiced holds a lot all week," Player said. "That didn't have anything to do with it."

<p class="MsoNormal">Dawson hit the ball hard. It ricocheted backward almost 20 yards.

<p class="MsoNormal">"From an operations standpoint, everything felt good," Dawson said. "From that distance, kicking from the dirt wasn't a factor at all."

<p class="MsoNormal">The block was the deciding factor.

<p class="MsoNormal">Special teams ace Joshua Cribbs, who earlier returned a kickoff 99 yards, said there was "a little leak in the middle."

<p class="MsoNormal">Dawson went limp as the ball caromed backward. Player ran after it.

<p class="MsoNormal">"It's like a dire strait," Player said. "You're trying to get your hands on the ball ... not that I was gonna score anyway, but they ruled it dead."

<p class="MsoNormal">Three hours earlier, while the Indians celebrated, Dawson was on the infield for the coin flip. How did the football game's final turnabout make him feel?

<p class="MsoNormal">"There's not even words."

<p class="MsoNormal">Reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com

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