Browns Pick On Grbac

This time, the building left Elvis.

A flood of Baltimore Raven fans didn’t bother to stay for the ending Sunday, streaming for the exits in disgust.

They watched Elvis Grbac throw four interceptions and essentially hand the Cleveland Browns a 27-17 victory.

They chanted the name of backup quarterback Randall Cunningham, and booed when Coach Brian Billick stubbornly refused to look his way.

“Elvis is my starting quarterback,” Billick snapped later. “I think our best chance to win is with Elvis Grbac.”

Not Sunday. After throwing three interceptions in the first half, Grbac threw a fourth in the third quarter on a pass from the Cleveland four-yard line, wasting a scoring chance.

For this the Ravens shelled out a five-year, $30-million contract last spring?

“He was brought here to do a job,” teammate Shannon Sharpe said, “and the job’s not being done.”

On another day, Sharpe might have reveled in the moment. He caught a 29-yard pass on the fifth play of the game to become the NFL’s all-time reception leader for tight ends. But that was little consolation on an afternoon the Ravens (6-4) suffered their first home loss in nine games.

Baltimore’s offense was upstaged by Cleveland’s, which entered the game ranked last in the NFL.

To his credit, Grbac shouldered the blame. He said he never stopped believing he could pull his team from the chasm, drawing strength from the memory of an overtime victory over Seattle when he was playing for Kansas City and threw four interceptions in the first half. He shrugged off the reaction of angry Baltimore fans.

“That’s part of the game you’ve got to love,” said Grbac, who also fumbled. “People are going to boo, people are going to cheer. But you know the next play might be the one that goes the distance.”

That play never came. Meanwhile, Cunningham waited patiently on the sideline, too poised after 16 NFL seasons to work up any frustration about not getting the nod.

“I’m still in [Grbac’s] corner,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m not over there chanting or anything. I’m just supporting him. We’re teammates. I know how tough it is when you come in as a new quarterback and you’ve really got to do good. I’ve been there.”

Even though they won a Super Bowl with Trent Dilfer at quarterback, the Ravens went another direction in the off-season and signed Grbac to add pizazz to the offense. With more interceptions (13) than touchdowns (nine), he has certainly made things interesting.

“I made some bad reads, some bad mistakes,” he said. “Give credit to their defense ... but we made too many mistakes.”

The Browns (5-4) had turnover problems too--Tim Couch threw three interceptions--but that was washed away in the euphoria of sweeping the defending Super Bowl champions.

Cleveland cornerback Corey Fuller, who talked a garbage barge of trash all week, fished a towel out of his locker and dragged it back and forth on the ground. Sweep, sweep, sweep.

“I look at them as bullies in our conference,” he said. “One thing I knew growing up in my neighborhood, the bully didn’t like it when you fought back. He didn’t like to be challenged. He wanted you to bow down. We knew one thing, we were not going to bow down.”

That went double--er, triple--for reserve cornerback Anthony Henry, who intercepted three passes. He’s the only rookie in Cleveland’s secondary, and he figured Grbac saw him as a victim in waiting.

“I kind of figured they were going to target me,” said Henry, who also had three of Cleveland’s seven interceptions against Detroit. “I just wanted to make sure I was prepared to meet the challenge.”

The Browns took a 20-7 lead into halftime, but Baltimore trimmed that to 20-17 with a touchdown and field goal in the third quarter. The Ravens got the ball four times in the fourth, yet never got closer than the Cleveland 43.

The Browns secured the victory with a 68-yard drive that used 5:51 and ended with Jamel White’s one-yard touchdown plunge. That came with 4:02 remaining and had more than half the crowd of 69,353 heading for the parking lot.

For the past week, Baltimore players were talking about revenge. They wanted retribution for their 24-14 loss at Cleveland last month. Scribbled on the grease board in their locker room was a message reading: “Payback is a dish best served cold. Let’s roll.”

A stirring thought, but one that sounded a bit silly in light of what happened.

Let’s roll? More like let’s roll over.

“It’s simple,” Sharpe said. “We turn the football over, we lose.”