Beating Browns Snow Big Deal for the Chargers : Pro football: Humphries’ 45-yard touchdown pass to Miller in fourth quarter gives Chargers a 14-13 victory in wintry conditions.

Let it snow, let it snow, let them think a bunch of beach boys will shy away from frolicking in the snow.

“This is my first time ever in the snow,” said Charger linebacker Junior Seau, the Oceanside native who played in his short sleeves. “And now I’m 1-0 in the snow.”

The Chargers (5-5) overcame a six-point fourth-quarter deficit in wintry Cleveland Stadium Sunday and went home with a warm feeling after a 14-13 victory over the Browns in front of 58,396 fans.

The warm-blooded Chargers didn’t figure to have a snowball’s chance. “Nobody expected us to win, especially in this type of weather,” linebacker Gary Plummer said, “but we just persevered, and that’s the mark of a winner.”

Quarterback Stan Humphries found Anthony Miller wide open for a 45-yard touchdown pass with 2:05 remaining. John Carney’s point-after gave the Chargers a 14-13 lead, and then with 52 seconds left and the Browns driving, Charger safety Stanley Richard recovered Eric Metcalf’s fumble to secure the victory.

“This win is so sweet it’s giving me a cavity,” Charger tackle Broderick Thompson said. “We haven’t had this kind of excitement in a long time.”

The Chargers have won five of their last six games and remain the hottest team in the AFC as they prepare to play Tampa Bay in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium. They already have won more games than last season, when they finished 4-12, and there is not a team remaining on their schedule with a winning record.

“It was a great feeling. Everybody started talking to each other,” said Miller, who topped the 100-yard mark for the fourth time in the past six weeks with seven catches for 110 yards. “We were saying, ‘This is the last drive. This is it.’ It was just an incredible feeling.”

The Browns (5-5) took a 13-7 lead on a pair of Matt Stover field goals in the fourth quarter. The Chargers took possession at their 28-yard line with 4:51 to play, and Coach Bobby Ross decided to lay it all on the line with one final drive.

Although unsuccessful to that point on the ground, the Chargers had Marion Butts run on first down, and he didn’t stop until he had gained 13 yards. They ran him again for four yards, and the clock continued to move.

Butts gained six more yards, and with the Chargers taking their time as they made their way in and out of the huddle, he gained two more. Then on second and eight from the Browns’ 45-yard line, Humphries tried to go deep into the end zone to Nate Lewis.

Humphries, however, overthrew Lewis, and the Chargers were confronted with a third and eight. A little more than two minutes remained.

On the sideline, Ross had decided to go for it on fourth down if third down resulted in failure. In the huddle, Humphries called the play, a variation of the same play that had resulted in Humphries’ 26-yard touchdown pass to Shawn Jefferson in the first quarter.

“My assignment was to run a post,” Miller said. “I think the safety (Eric Turner) went with a receiver who cut in front of him, and by the time he got back to me, it was too late.”

The Chargers’ offensive line provided Humphries with the time he needed to watch Miller work himself deep, and then at the moment he threw the ball, he reminded himself: “Don’t overthrow it. Don’t overthrow it.”

Humphries nearly underthrew it.

“Really I haven’t seen the catch yet,” said Humphries, who completed 19 of 32 for 234 yards. “I was kind of blocked out. I never saw him make the catch or see how wide open he was.”

Miller’s touchdown reception tied the game, and Carney came on to put the Chargers ahead with the extra point. Carney’s 44-yard field-goal attempt earlier in the fourth quarter had been aborted after holder John Kidd failed to handle the snap from center.

As Carney lined up for the conversion kick, the unruly fans in the “Dawg Pound” beyond the end zone began to pelt the Chargers. A snowball landed directly in front of Kidd and splattered in his direction as Carney made his move for the ball.

“I was thinking, ‘What if I take a snowball in the face?’ ” Kidd said. “I thought that will make it tricky.”

Carney moved forward, slipped on the turf, but managed to make his way through the ball. “It wasn’t the prettiest extra point I have ever made,” Carney said. “It was low, and left, but it went through.”

The Browns accepted the ball at their 20 after the kickoff, and they had three timeouts and 1:59 remaining.

Cleveland quarterback Mike Tomczak, who had thrown a 24-yard touchdown pass to Michael Jackson earlier in the fourth quarter, hit Lawyer Tillman on first down for 24 yards to the Cleveland 44, and then he passed 15 yards to Metcalf to the San Diego 41.

The Browns were penalized 10 yards for holding, and on second and 20 from the Cleveland 49, Tomczak went back to Metcalf. Metcalf caught a short pass, broke right and tried to shake off the tackle of Gill Byrd just as Darren Carrington arrived.

Byrd and Carrington forced Metcalf to fumble, and Richard fell on the ball. The Browns used their timeouts, stopped the Chargers and had three plays to stage a miracle finish. But the Browns could not get close enough for a field-goal attempt.

The Chargers overcame a pair of Harmon fumbles, each of which gave the Browns field position at the San Diego 26-yard line. In the first quarter after Harmon fumbled on the Chargers’ third offensive play, Carrington stepped in front of a Tomczak pass and returned it 69 yards to the Cleveland 26.

On third and 10 Humphries passed to Jefferson in the end zone for a 7-0 Charger lead.

In the fourth quarter, Harmon’s fumble appeared as if it might doom the Chargers. The Browns, leading 10-7, had the opportunity to put the game out of reach.

“I told the defense just don’t let them get a touchdown,” Ross said. “This wasn’t one of our better games defensively, but we got the turnover in the first quarter, which was a huge play, and then we force them to kick a field goal on the second Harmon turnover. That kept us in position to win the game.”

The Browns compiled 385 yards to the Chargers’ 312, but they turned the ball over three times and might have underestimated the Chargers’ resolve in such poor weather.

The Chargers are 2-1 under Ross in games decided by seven or fewer points.

“The win was good for us as a team,” said Ross, who raised his fist into the air as he ran off the soggy field. “The weather was rough, we were on foreign territory and we had a tough loss last week that we had to get over. And we didn’t play real pretty.

“But we came out with a win, and you have to give a lot of credit to our players’ character. They fought hard, and I’d rather win one like that, quite honestly, than I would to go out there and blow them out.”