Metcalf’s Returns Lift Browns, 28-23 : Pro football: He brings back two punts for touchdowns against Steelers, the second with 2:05 to play.

The famous Bruce Springsteen song filled the aging stadium as nearly 80,000 fans bounced up and down, shouting and hugging and barking.

There was still a minute remaining, but Eric Metcalf turned his back to the field and stared into the stands.

“Glory Days” had returned to the Cleveland Browns, and their most glorious little punt returner couldn’t help but soak it in.

“I kind of feel like Joe Carter,” he said.

Except no home run ever moved like that . Metcalf darted and dodged 75 yards with a Pittsburgh Steeler punt and scored with 2:05 to play Sunday, giving the Browns a 28-23 victory over their most hated rivals.

It was Metcalf’s second punt return for a touchdown in the game. It was the first time the Browns have felt like this in a long time.

They are 5-2, their best start in 16 years, which is good enough to lead the Central Division and bring back memories.

Metcalf’s teammates, who tossed cups of water high into the air as he raced past, later were drenched with emotion.

“There isn’t anything like this . . . this is what the NFL is all about,” said safety Stevon Moore, who threw the big block on Metcalf’s game-winning return. “You don’t play for 20 or 30 minutes, you play for 60 minutes, all of them. And whoever wants it more, wins it.”

Clay Matthews, 37, the oldest defensive player in the NFL, said the afternoon reminded him of days when players had more courage than teeth.

“It was like one of those great old AFL games--the intensity, the emotion,” he said. “For three years, we have been trying to get back to where we were in the late ‘80s, get back to those great days. We took a big step in that direction.”

Before Metcalf’s second touchdown, it was the favored Steelers who had taken many steps over the Brown defense.

With Neil O’Donnell passing for a career-high 355 yards, with Brown quarterback Vinny Testaverde sidelined after a vicious fourth-quarter hit by Kevin Greene, it appeared the Steelers would win for only the second time in their last 12 games in Cleveland Stadium.

But with a 23-21 lead and facing a fourth down on their 22-yard line, the Steelers made the mistake of punting the ball where Metcalf could catch it.

Metcalf had returned a punt 91 yards for a touchdown early in the second quarter, taunting the Steelers by running up the middle of the field before cutting to the sidelines and breaking two tackles.

But this was a guy who sat out all but one day of practice last week because of a sprained right knee. He has done some amazing things this season--the Raiders will not soon forget his game-winning touchdown at the Coliseum last month--but this sort of lightning could not strike twice, could it?

“Nobody predicted this but . . . Eric has more moves than Michael Jackson,” said Brown defensive lineman Michael Dean Perry. “He is our thriller.”

Metcalf grabbed the kick from Mark Royals along the right sideline in front of the Browns’ bench and started upfield. A couple of crushing open-field blocks gave him early room.

Then he traversed the final 40 yards unaided, briefly cutting inside before going back outside, making three Steelers miss while his leaping teammates told themselves they knew it all along.

“When you watch Eric run, at a certain point, it’s like a spark gets lit underneath him,” said Brown running back Tommy Vardell. “About halfway through his return, I saw that spark. I knew he was going to score.”

Metcalf, who also gained 53 yards rushing and 18 yards with a team-leading three catches, refused to take the credit.

“We allowed everyone to peel back and set up the wall to the side,” he said. “I just had to wait patiently and then try to get to the right side and everybody was there taking folks out.”

Somehow, the word patient does not seem to fit in a description of two touchdown returns, which tied an NFL record shared by several and last equaled by Todd Kinchen of the Rams last season.

It certainly is not appropriate in the case of Steeler Coach Bill Cowher, who probably won’t even wait 24 hours before firing members of his punt-coverage team. The Steelers, who had won four in a row, are 4-3.

“I’m going to look at it very carefully,” Cowher said. “You play your butt off . . . and as hard as we play, it comes down to two plays like that.”

Greg Lloyd, a Steeler linebacker who had one of his team’s four sacks, put it another way.

“It’s one thing to give up a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown, but to have it happen twice--that is just stupid football,” he said. “If you go 150 miles an hour for 60 minutes, you can’t go out there and be half-stepping it (on the punt team).”

Lloyd was right about the 150 m.p.h. part.

From the time fans of both teams started barking and screaming at each other outside bars and restaurants near the stadium Saturday night until Moore recovered a fumble by the Steelers’ Dwight Stone to end the game, this was a event filled with big hits.

The biggest, and most overlooked hit, was the collision between Greene and Testaverde with 7:27 left to play. Testaverde will be sidelined for two or three weeks because of a slightly separated shoulder and will be replaced by local favorite Bernie Kosar, a move that will stir things up.

As if this team, or this town, really needs more emotion.