Browns’ Defense Shines Again, 35-9 : AFC: Stellar performance against Seattle helps Cleveland set team record for fewest points allowed.

No one expected this much of the 1994 Cleveland Browns.

No one except the Browns.

“They looked at our schedule and said we were supposed to be an 8-8 club. But we finished with 11 wins and beat the teams we weren’t supposed to beat,” safety Eric Turner said Saturday after the Browns dominated the Seattle Seahawks, 35-9, clinching the home-field for next week’s AFC wild-card game.

The Browns (11-5) finished off one of the best defensive seasons in franchise history, limiting opponents to 204 points--easily a team record for a 16-game season, and the fewest by an AFC team in a full season since Pittsburgh yielded 195 in 1978.

The 11 victories are the Browns’ most since they went 12-4 in 1986. The winning record is their first in four years under Coach Bill Belichick.

“It could have been better, and our goals are high, but my hat has to go off to the team for what they have accomplished,” Belichick said. “The big feeling is, we expected to be here. We expected to be in the playoffs, and the real season starts next week.”

Seattle (6-10) closed a season it would prefer to forget, a season in which at least eight starters, including quarterback Rick Mirer, were lost to injuries.

Vinny Testaverde threw touchdown passes of 35 yards to Mark Carrier and three yards to rookie Derrick Alexander and also scrambled one yard for a score late in the first half. Carrier added a 14-yard touchdown run on an end-around.

Cleveland, stung by a 17-7 loss at archrival Pittsburgh a week ago, was determined to set the tempo from the start, driving 60 yards in 10 plays capped by Eric Metcalf’s six-yard sweep. Leroy Hoard ran seven times for 37 yards on the drive and had 71 yards rushing by halftime.

Carrier’s 35-yard catch in the second quarter gave Cleveland a 14-0 lead. Seattle had minus one yard of total offense at that point.

The Browns made it 21-0 at the half on Testaverde’s run.

Seattle, whose only first-half threat ended when John Kasay’s 47-yard field goal try bounced off the right upright, ended the shutout bid when Kasay kicked a 30-yarder early in the third quarter.