Miami Comeback Beats a Comeback : Football: Browns rally from 17-point deficit to take lead, but Dolphins win, 27-23, behind Marino’s passing.

The Miami Dolphins blew a 20-3 fourth-quarter lead but came back to beat the Cleveland Browns, 27-23, when Mark Higgs scored his second touchdown on a one-yard plunge with seven seconds to play.

The game was Miami’s first, its scheduled opener against New England having been postponed last week while the South Florida area recovered from Hurricane Andrew.

The layoff didn’t seem to bother Dan Marino, who passed for 322 yards--68 of them in driving Miami to the winning touchdown in the closing seconds.

“It was tough to go 18 days without playing, but we understand what the circumstances were and we just did what we had to do,” he said. “Sure, it gets exciting with what, a minute and 10 seconds left? You’re on the road, the crowd’s against you. Yeah, that’s exciting.”

Marino set up Higgs’ winning score with passes of 22 and 18 yards to Fred Banks. A roughing-the-passer penalty was tacked onto Banks’ first reception.

Higgs’ deciding touchdown atoned for his fumbling the ball away during Cleveland’s fourth-quarter rally. David Brandon returned the fumble 32 yards for the second of the Browns’ three touchdowns.

“Dan made me hang in there,” Higgs said. “He said, ‘Mark, you’re going to get the ball back, and you have to be ready.’ ”

Brandon’s fumble return was sandwiched between Bernie Kosar’s touchdown passes to Michael Jackson and Mark Bavaro. Bavaro caught the go-ahead pass with 1:18 to play, setting the stage for Marino’s heroics.