CLEVELAND - The Cleveland Browns will finish the season with one running back barely claiming more than 500 yards rushing.
In contrast, Baltimore s Jamal Lewis ran for exactly 500 yards in just two games against Cleveland.
The Ravens running back, who set an NFL record with 295 yards against the Browns in Baltimore on Sept. 14, added 205 yards and two touchdowns in yesterday s rematch.
With the Ravens defense pitching a shutout and scoring a touchdown of its own, Baltimore moved into sole possession of first place in the AFC North with a 35-0 victory. The Ravens need a win at home against Pittsburgh next weekend to ensure an outright division title and a playoff berth.
The Browns, meanwhile, closed their 2003 home slate at 2-6 - numbers every bit as dismal as yesterday s effort - and take a 4-11 overall record into the season finale at Cincinnati. They ve dropped five straight and eight of their last nine games.
Quarterback Tim Couch was sacked five times, two of them resulting in fumbles. In all, the Browns had four turnovers. The biggest cheer of the day came for the two-minute warning from the fewer than 5,000 fans left at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
By then, Lewis had spectators reaching for their car keys and the Browns reaching for the white flag.
In September, the Browns suggested that Lewis record-setting day was something of a fluke. Yesterday, however, marked the third 200-yard performance by an opposing running back and the sixth time this season that an opposing back rushed for triple figures.
“I don t know what their excuse is going to be this time,” Lewis said.
Lewis gained 54 yards on his first 17 carries, then exploded for 151 yards, including touchdown runs of 72 and 24 yards, on his last five carries.
“[The Browns] fought pretty well and held me at the beginning of the game,” Lewis said. “I knew we just had to be patient, take three or four yards at a time, and something big would come in the second half. Our line is very physical and I knew [the Cleveland defense] would eventually wear down.
“I just kept pressing my holes and eventually they overplayed a bit too much. I got out on the backside, the hole was there and no one was back. That s what happens when you bring eight or nine guys in the box. If they overplay one side then [I] cut back, and when you spring free the end zone is there. I think that long run pretty much broke [the Browns ] will.”
Lewis was describing his 72-yard TD run in the third quarter that made the score 14-0 and pretty much put the game out of the reach of the Browns, who managed just 211 total yards.
“We moved the ball some in the first half, but didn t get any points,” said Couch. “Baltimore has a great defense and in the second half we went three-and-out or turned it over too many times. We didn t give our defense a chance to rest and Jamal Lewis sort of took the game over.”
Lewis made it 21-0 on a 24-yard run on the first play after a Couch fumble and safety Chad Williams bumped the lead to 28-0 early in the fourth quarter with a 52-yard interception return.
“There s not much to say,” Browns coach Butch Davis said. “Eventually, if you don t score points, you can only expose your defense so much. Some of the same [things] happened today that happened the first time [we played Baltimore]. We did a good job early, but if a team pounds it enough, you re going to get one of those runs that pops out the back door. You get a couple missed tackles and it turns into a big play.”
After 15 games, Lewis has 1,952 yards and is within striking distance of becoming the fifth player in NFL history to surpass 2,000 yards in a season.
He needs 154 yards against the Steelers next week to break Eric Dickerson s all-time, single-season record of 2,105 yards set in 1984 with the Rams.
“I know my offensive line will be pretty geeked up,” Lewis said. “I ll just put it in their hands. With my line and the way our receivers get out and block downfield, anything s possible. Winning the game next week is the big thing. The yards take care of themselves. If it is to be, it will be.”
And what will be for the Browns?
“We can t win on the road and we can t win at home,” said offensive lineman Shaun O Hara.
First Published December 22, 2003, 12:18 p.m.
