PITTSBURGH - The Cleveland Browns offense did just about all it could to win yesterday's AFC wild-card playoff game against Pittsburgh.

Quarterback Kelly Holcomb passed for 429 yards and three touchdowns. Two of them went to Dennis Northcutt, who caught six passes for 92 yards and set up one of his own TD catches with a 59-yard punt return. Kevin Johnson caught four passes for 140 yards, including an 83-yard bomb early in the game.

All of that against, statistically, one of the three best defenses in the NFL.

But for all the Browns' offensive players accomplished, they were left to lament the one play they didn't make in the latter stages of a stunning 36-33 loss to the Steelers at Heinz Field.

Leading 33-28, Cleveland took possession with exactly 3:00 to play, but ran into all kinds of problems on third-and-seven from its own 26.

First, there was a delay of game penalty - one of several on the day - and then Northcutt dropped a pass that would have given the Browns a first down. Instead, with 2:35 on the clock, Cleveland was forced to punt.

“Most definitely, I should have caught it,” Northcutt said, downplaying the difficulty of a high, fairly well-defended pass along the left sideline. “I ran a good route, I got open and I dropped it, plain and simple.

“Yeah, it was the best game of my career, especially coming in the playoffs. But you can make 100 plays and if you don't make the one play that secures the win for your team, well, it's an empty feeling.

“We needed first downs to keep the chains moving and the clock running. That should have been one. It's hard to enjoy anything else I did out there because when I dropped that one, nothing else mattered.”

The Steelers responded with a six-play, 61-yard drive and took their first lead of the game with 0:58 remaining.

With Cleveland's running game snuffed out by the Pittsburgh defense, Holcomb took control and amassed the second highest passing yardage total in Browns' playoff history.

“We were aggressive, and we went for the jugular with our passing game,” said right guard Shaun O'Hara.

Holcomb, starting in place of the injured Tim Couch, completed 26 of 43 passes. But he too, best remembered the late incompletion.

“I feel sick to my stomach to have lost a game like that,” Holcomb said. “The pass to Dennis was a play we should have made. There was one early in the fourth quarter too. Jamel White was open in the end zone and I made a bad throw. We had to settle for a field goal when a touchdown would have put us up by 17 points. That would have made it tough for them to come back.

“I'm proud of the way the offense played. We felt all week that if we picked up the blitz we could take our shots downfield and make things happen. We did that. But we couldn't finish it.”

Holcomb hit Johnson on a go route down the right sideline on the third play of the game for 83 yards to set up a one-yard touchdown plunge by William Green. The Browns' QB later made it 14-0 with a perfect 32-yard strike to Northcutt on a similar route.

“I think we opened up some eyes today,” Johnson said. “Our four receivers proved we're a lethal combination. We did our jobs and made a lot of plays. We scored 33 points and had a lead and I thought we were as good as in Oakland [for a divisional playoff game next weekend]. It didn't happen, but I'm not going to walk out of here with my head down.”

First Published January 6, 2003, 12:32 p.m.