Stover Gets Guidance, Gives Browns Win, 14-13

Matt Stover needed a little help from his snapper, his holder and a higher power.

Stover’s fourth field goal of the game, a 45-yarder with four seconds left, gave the Cleveland Browns a 14-13 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday.

“It started out a little right, and the Good Lord blew on it and it made it through,” Stover said.

Stover could have had five field goals, but an earlier attempt was scuttled when a low snap from Brian Kinchen, signed by the Browns (2-1) just two days earlier, couldn’t be picked up by holder Brian Hansen.

“Even though there was the one that we fumbled around, we had to come back and kick two or three more,” Stover said. “I just felt good. With confidence like that, knowing my holder, my snapper--and my line was going to block for me--all I had to do was take my time and make sure I made it through.”

The kick capped a 60-yard, 14-play drive that started at the Cleveland 12-yard line with just over three minutes left. Bernie Kosar, who missed on seven of his previous eight passes, completed six of nine for 49 yards on the winning march.

“It wasn’t a thing of beauty the first three quarters,” Kosar said. “What we were saying on the sidelines, it doesn’t matter what happened in the first 3 1/2 quarters of the game. It all comes down to this. It’s fun. That’s why you play the game.”

The difference in the game was a second-quarter safety, set up when Hansen’s 51-yard punt pinned the Bengals inside their own five-yard line.

Penalties pushed the Bengals inside the one, and James Brooks was tackled in the end zone by rookie James Jones when Cincinnati tried a sweep on third down.

“We had bad field position anyway,” Cincinnati Coach Sam Wyche said. “We figured they’d pop it up the middle and if we got outside, maybe we could break a big play.”

Cincinnati (0-3) is off to its worst start since 1985, and with two losses in the AFC Central Division, has already lost more division games than it did in either of the past two years.

The Bengals lost three fumbles in the first three quarters and weregenerally ineffective on offense until the fourth quarter when Boomer Esiason threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Tim McGee with 13:39 left to slice Cleveland’s lead to 11-10.

The Bengals took a 13-11 lead on Jim Breech’s 36-yard field goal with 6:41 left. Breech also had a 21-yarder in the first quarter.