Lowery, Chiefs Fit to Be Tied, 10-10

Nick Lowery rarely misses, but he doesn’t often kick on the sloppy turf in Cleveland Stadium.

Lowery, one of the most accurate kickers in history, missed two long field goals in the final four seconds of regulation and another with three seconds left in overtime Sunday as the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cleveland Browns played to a 10-10 tie.

“This is a tough stadium to kick in,” Lowery said. “The last kick in overtime was like trying to kick out of a sand trap.”

Cleveland Stadium has a grass field that take nearly a year-round beating from football and baseball, so the footing is rarely good.

Any moisture makes it a mess.

“It’s sandy in places and muddy in other places,” said Cleveland’s Matt Bahr, who made a 40-yarder in the first half. “You’ve even got turf seams. You never know what you’re going to get when you go out there. Other kickers have empathy for me, that I have to kick on this field all the time.”

Lowery, who began the year as the NFL’s second-most accurate kicker behind New Orleans’ Morten Andersen, tied the game with a line-drive, 41-yard field goal with 3:48 left in regulation time.

He was wide right on a 45-yarder with four seconds left in regulation, but an offside call against Cleveland (7-3-1) gave him a second chance from 39 yards. That one was wide left.

Lowery’s 47-yard try with three seconds left in overtime was short.

The game lived up to its billing as a grudge match between the Browns and their former coach, Marty Schottenheimer, head coach of the Chiefs (4-6-1).

Cleveland put Kansas City quarterback Steve Pelluer out of the game with a sprained knee in the first quarter. The Browns held Christian Okoye, the NFL’s leading rusher, to 40 yards in 21 carries.

Eric Metcalf scored on a one-yard run to give Cleveland a 10-7 lead in the third quarter after Chiefs scored on the second play of the second half when Neil Smith ran Mike Oliphant’s fumble three yards to score.