Special teams comes through in Browns victory

Special teams had Browns fans screaming for a specialist -- say, a cardiologist -- pretty much until it got dark Sunday.

What's the old saying? All's special that ends special?

After fracturing Sunday's game against Seattle with a rare missed extra point, Phil Dawson nailed a 25-yard field goal to give the Browns a wild 33-30 win.

Dawson looked to the sky and pumped his left arm as the Browns Stadium lights reflected off his beaming face.

"It's been a long time since a game-winner I've had here mattered," said Dawson, the only Brown who has been around since 1999. "I tell you what. It's been worth the wait."

Dawson blamed himself for the missed point after, his first in 56 tries. It mattered.

When the Browns rallied for a touchdown in the fourth quarter, they had to go for two, trailing 24-22. They didn't make it.

When they scored with 2:17 left to take a 28-27 lead, they had to sweat out another 2-point try needed to go up by a field goal. This one worked, meaning Seattle only sent the game to overtime with a subsequent field goal.

"I won't say it doesn't eat at you," said Dawson, who also mis-hit a kickoff out of bounds. "It was a rough day at the office, but ... I made a mistake. I needed to learn from it.

"It's easy to come back from adversity when you see the rest of the guys on the team doing the same thing."

Special teams also gave up a 94-yard punt return to Nate Burleson, giving the Seahawks an early 21-6 lead.

"I got a piece of him," coverage man Joshua Cribbs said. "I should have had him. Blame that one on me. The gunner's supposed to read that. I'm better than that."

Also damaging was a holding penalty against Darnell Dinkins that wrecked a Cribbs kickoff return to the 35. Instead, the Browns set up at the 11, trailing 27-22 with 7:55 left.

"All of that happened," Cribbs said. "We still won, because we stayed together as a team. We played as one team."

It came down to Dawson's field goal in overtime.

It was redemption time on two fronts. There was the missed point-after boot. Also, on Sept. 23 at Oakland, his 40-yard try that would have won the game was blocked.

"It was good to see us come back from our last game-winning situation," Dawson said. "We became a team today."

Reach Repository sports writer Steve Doerschuk at (330) 580-8347 or e-mail steve.doerschuk@cantonrep.com.