Browns Waste Lead, Then Beat Oilers : Pro football: Mack proves his value to team during winning drive as Cleveland wins title in AFC Central.

The Cleveland Browns discovered Saturday night what they have known most of the year.

Without Kevin Mack, they’re an ordinary team. With him, they’re the AFC Central champion.

Mack, who missed most of the season while jailed for a drug conviction and then because of an injured knee, scored from four yards with 39 seconds left to give the Browns a 24-20 victory over Houston and their fourth division title in five years.

The touchdown capped a 58-yard drive that began with 2:30 left. And it began two minutes after Houston had come back from a 17-0 deficit to take a 20-17 lead on a 27-yard pass from Warren Moon to Drew Hill.

Mack, activated three weeks ago after leading Cleveland in rushing the past five years, had 27 of his 62 yards on the winning drive.

The victory gave Cleveland a 9-6-1 record and guaranteed it will play host to a playoff game in two weeks. Houston (9-7) can still make the playoffs as a wild card if either Indianapolis loses to New Orleans today or Cincinnati loses to Minnesota Monday night.

“It will be interesting to see what happens the next couple of days,” Houston Coach Jerry Glanville said.

“If we get in, it will only be because someone is watching over us,” Moon said.

The Browns took a 17-0 lead on Matt Bahr’s 32-yard field goal on the first series of the game and touchdown passes from Bernie Kosar of 68 yards to Eric Metcalf and 40 to Webster Slaughter. The play to Metcalf was a short pass on which the rookie zigzagged most of the way on his own. But he left the game shortly afterward because of a bruised foot.

Tony Zendejas’ 32-yard field goal with 14 seconds left in the half made the score 17-3, but Moon threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Hill after a 73-yard drive on the first possession of the second half.

Moon completed 32 of 51 passes for 414 yards, 273 in the second half.

Zendejas’ 37-yard field goal made the score 17-13 as the Houston defense, cheered by the Astrodome crowd of 58,342, began to assert itself.

Then the game seemed to turn on a mistake by Clay Matthews, who earlier had tipped a field goal attempt by Zendejas and had sacked Moon to stall another drive.

After Houston had driven from its 15 to the Browns’ 15, center Jay Pennison’s snap to Moon in the shotgun formation went by his right ear. Matthews came up with the ball and began to run. As he was hit, he lateraled toward Chris Pike. But it went past Pike and Houston’s Ernest Givins fell on the ball at the 27.

On the next play, Moon passed to Hill behind Mark Harper to make the score 20-17.

But after Cleveland stalled once, the defense stopped the Oilers and got the ball back with 2:30 left. Then the offense, held to 68 second-half yards up to then, got going.

Kosar threw passes of 10 yards to Slaughter and nine yards to Reggie Langhorne.

Then Mack, who finished with 12 carries for 62 yards, ran for 11 and 12 yards to put the ball on the Houston four. He then bulled in from there for the score that put Cleveland in the playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.

Kosar finished 18 of 36 for 228 yards.