Oilers Beat Clock, Browns : AFC: Houston scores two touchdowns in final three minutes to win at Cleveland, 17-14.

Once they had proved to themselves they could score, the Houston Oilers had no doubt they could do it again--no matter how late it was.

“After we got the first one, the guys really started believing,” Cody Carlson said Sunday after he threw two touchdown passes in the final three minutes to beat the Cleveland Browns, 17-14.

Houston (9-6) gained an AFC wild-card berth. The loss eliminated Cleveland (7-8) from playoff contention for the third year in row.

Carlson, sacked six times and possibly playing his last game of the season in relief of injured Warren Moon, brought Houston back from a 14-3 deficit with late scoring passes to Curtis Duncan and Ernest Givins.

Duncan’s two-yard reception came with 2:58 left. After Cleveland punted, Carlson drove the Oilers 74 yards in 1:16, putting them ahead for the first time with a three-yard pass to Givins with 34 seconds to play.

The big play on the winning drive was a 65-yard screen pass to Lorenzo White, who followed his blockers perfectly down the right side to the Cleveland 12.

“Toward the end, the only thing they were concentrating on was getting a rush and trying to get another sack,” Carlson said. “That opened it up for us. A couple of times earlier, they had read it pretty good. They expected it, because it’s a big part of our offense.”

The Browns were not caught off guard by the screen, because defensive coordinator Nick Saban had been warning them about it all week.

“Coach Saban said if they execute it, there’s a 50-50 chance of it going 50 yards,” Cleveland safety Eric Turner said. “Even before the play, we talked about it. They just executed it well. They got three or four blockers out in front of him.”

The Browns were stunned by the sudden turn of events.

“I can’t even put it into words,” Turner said. “We’re out of the playoffs. That was a playoff game for us, do or die.”

Said quarterback Bernie Kosar: “Everyone is just really down. To be leading, 14-3, in the fourth quarter and then to let it slip away like that was obviously real discouraging.”

The touchdown by Duncan was his first in 109 receptions, ending the longest streak of catches without a touchdown in NFL history.

Al Del Greco’s 47-yard field goal in the second quarter proved to be the difference. Cleveland’s Matt Stover missed a 42-yarder at the end of the first half.

Carlson, starting his fifth game since Moon broke his arm, completed 19 of 34 passes for 248 yards. More than half the yards came during the fourth quarter.

Cleveland controlled the first three quarters, and seemed to have clinched the game by stopping the Oilers four consecutive times at the Cleveland one early in the fourth quarter.

“It was kind of bleak-looking there for a while,” Carlson said. “We get down on the one-foot line and can’t score--ridiculous.”

Kosar threw touchdown passes to two unlikely receivers, connecting with special teams player Ron Wolfley for a two-yard scoring pass in the first quarter and defensive tackle James Jones for a one-yarder in the third. Jones, who lined up as a blocking back as he frequently does, slipped into the right flat for the pass.