Kosar Gets a Victory With Trickery : Cleveland: Using gadget plays in second half, Browns out-slick Oilers to win, 28-17.

Bernie Kosar did everything except pull a rabbit out of his helmet.

Stopped cold by Houston’s defense in the first half, the Cleveland Browns resorted to trickery in the second half, using gadget plays on three of their four touchdown drives and beating the Oilers, 28-17, Sunday.

“I guess it was appropriate, with Halloween coming up,” Houston quarterback Warren Moon said. “I guess they thought they couldn’t come straight at us, so they fell back on the gadget plays. It’s surprising to see two or three of them work like that.”

The Browns (5-3) trailed 10-0 at halftime and began the second half innocently enough with a 13-play scoring drive capped by Kosar’s five-yard scramble.

Helping set up the score, though, was Reggie Langhorne’s 18-yard run on a reverse.

The use of deception grew on the Browns’ next series, as rookie halfback Eric Metcalf took a handoff and flipped the ball back to Kosar, who found Webster Slaughter 10 yards behind the Houston secondary for an 80-yard touchdown pass play.

Cleveland’s third possession lasted only two plays, with Kosar throwing to Slaughter for a straight-forward 77-yard touchdown.

Then the trickery resumed, with Metcalf throwing a 32-yard halfback pass to a wide-open Langhorne in the end zone. That score was set up by Kosar’s 25-yard pass to Metcalf on a double-reverse flea-flicker.

“By all rights, we should have been out of the game at halftime,” Cleveland Coach Bud Carson said. “So we decided to throw everything we had at them.”

Cleveland tight end Ozzie Newsome was held without a catch, breaking his reception streak at 150 games. It’s the second-longest such streak in National Football League history, behind Steve Largent’s 168.

The Browns, limited to 57 yards in the first half, ran up 326 yards of offense in the second half. Kosar completed all eight of his passes in the final two quarters and said the creative play-calling was vindication for oft-criticized offensive coordinator Marc Trestman.

“I don’t think in my career I’ve ever had a game where we used such a wide variety of plays,” Kosar said. “The job Marc Trestman did out there today--calling plays at the perfect time. Guys were wide open.

“It takes a lot of nerve on the coach’s part to call those, because if they backfire, you can lose 15 yards.”

The Oilers (4-4) dominated the first half, intercepting Kosar twice but failing to take full advantage of good field position.

Moon threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Haywood Jeffires at the end of a game-opening 68-yard drive that consumed nearly nine minutes, and Tony Zendejas added a second-period 23-yard field goal after Bubba McDowell intercepted a pass near midfield.

McDowell returned the interception for an apparent touchdown that was nullified by a penalty.

Houston’s offense struggled after starting center Jay Pennison left because of a sprained knee in the second quarter, although Mike Rozier ran one yard for his first touchdown of the season in the third quarter.

Kosar was 14 of 19 for 262 yards, and Slaughter caught four passes for 184 yards. He has 476 yards receiving in his last three games.