OAKLAND, Calif. - The crowd can be nasty and the stadium is dingy. Yet to Charlie Frye, the Oakland Coliseum must feel like home. Frye threw three touchdown passes and Cleveland used three long returns to rally from an early 18-point deficit and beat the Raiders 24-21 Sunday.
Frye, making his ninth start, used a second-half rally to win in Oakland for the second time in his young career despite another late interception that almost cost him the game.
After leading a game-winning drive in the final minutes of last year's 9-7 victory that was the first win of his career, Frye did his work with TD passes to Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius in the third quarter to win his third game for Cleveland (1-3).
A week off helped the Raiders (0-3) regroup after being outscored 55-6 in the first two games in Art Shell's second stint as coach. It seemed like Oakland was poised for a win after breaking out to a 21-3 lead.
But poor play on special teams, a mediocre performance by Andrew Walter in his first career start and a questionable spot by the officials doomed Oakland.
Early in the fourth quarter, Walter drove the Raiders down the field and completed a 15-yard pass to Ronald Curry on third-and-16 from the 45. Curry appeared to stretch the ball to the 28, but the officials marked him just inside the 30 and short of a first down.
Shell chose not to challenge the spot and Orpheus Roye beat Langston Walker and stopped LaMont Jordan for a 2-yard loss in the backfield on fourth down to end the drive.
Frye led the Browns to the 6 before throwing an ill-advised ball across the field that was intercepted by Nnamdi Asomugha with 3:58 left.
Last week, Frye threw an interception in the end zone with 3:21 left with Cleveland on top of Baltimore 14-12. The Ravens then drove for the winning field goal.
The Raiders were unable to do the same and are off to their worst start since losing their first three games in 1961, just their second year of existence.
Jordan ran for 128 yards, including a 59-yard score, Sam Williams returned a fumble 30 yards for Oakland's first touchdown of the year and Walter connected on a 5-yard pass with Randy Moss for his first career touchdown.
Frye's third-quarter TD passes helped the Browns avoid the third 0-4 start in their history. He finished 22-for-32 for 192 yards and outplayed Walter in a matchup of players taken two picks apart in the 2005 draft. Reuben Droughns ran for 100 yards on 25 carries for Cleveland.
Walter was 9-for-23 for 68 yards, a touchdown and an interception in place of injured starter Aaron Brooks.
The Raiders were unable to score after Jordan's long run made it 21-3 with 4:08 left in the second quarter.
Cleveland's two first-half scores came after long kickoff returns by Joshua Cribbs.
A 65-yard return set up Phil Dawson's 28-yard field goal, and after Jordan's touchdown run, Cribbs took the kick back 53 yards. That led to Frye's 2-yard pass to Darnell Dinkins that cut it to 21-10 with 58 seconds left in the half.
Frye led two touchdown drives in the third quarter as Cleveland rallied to take a 24-21 lead. He hit Winslow on a 22-yard pass on fourth-and-8 from the Oakland 31 to set up a 2-yard TD pass to Winslow.
After Dennis Northcutt's 58-yard punt return, Frye hit Jurevicius in the corner of the end zone for a 5-yard score late in the third quarter.
Frye Rallies Browns Past RaidersOAKLAND, Calif. - The crowd can be nasty and the stadium is dingy. Yet to Charlie Frye, the Oakland Coliseum must feel like home. Frye threw three touchdown passes and Cleveland used three long returns to rally from an early 18-point deficit and beat the Raiders 24-21 Sunday.
Frye, making his ninth start, used a second-half rally to win in Oakland for the second time in his young career despite another late interception that almost cost him the game.
After leading a game-winning drive in the final minutes of last year's 9-7 victory that was the first win of his career, Frye did his work with TD passes to Kellen Winslow and Joe Jurevicius in the third quarter to win his …
No comments:
Post a Comment