THUD! Browns Lose to Lowly Bungles By Mark Riley

Cleveland, Ohio---73,428 furious fans filed out of Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sunday as the Browns went down in defeat to the previously winless Cincinnati Bengals 21-14. There was much gnashing of teeth.

All started well as the Browns opened the game with a 71 TD pass to Quincy Morgan from Tim Couch on just the games second play. However, the Bengals came right back with a 76 yd. drive of their own and set the tone for the game as Marvin Lewis got his first win as Head Coach for Cinci.

Jon Kitna threw 3 touchdown passes ( 23/31 215 yds. and 3 TD's) and the Bengal Defense smothered the Browns in the second half. Tim Couch had respectable numbers (23/36 280yds.2 TD's) but the interception by Jeff Burris with 51 seconds to go sealed his fate. Couch even had a verbal spar with a fan as he left the field. In his defense, the loss wasn't Couch's fault, he is simply running the plays Bruce Arians and Butch Davis tell him to run. The blame certainly should rest squarely on the coaching staffs shoulders, including Defensive Coordinator Dave Campo, whose troops AGAIN missed tackle after tackle, put absolutely NO pressure on Kitna (who's uniform was spotless, even at the end of the game), and allowed the deep route to be exploited for a TD.

During the forth quarter, the Browns threw an incomplete pass on 4th and 4 from the Bengals 28, had three more possessions but never got inside the Bengals 45. The Browns set a season resord by being penalized 11 times for 101yds. "Those penalties cost us as much as 14 points" said Butch Davis.

"Silver Lining Notes"

* Kevin Johnson caught a pass for the 68th straight game and passed Eric Metcalf (297) for 7th on the Browns All-time receptions list with 299.

* Tim Couch surpassed 10,000 career passing yds.and ranks 5th on the Browns All-time passing list with 10,092 yds. and also moved the 3rd on the Browns All-time completions list passing the great Frank Ryan (907) with 928