The Washington Redskins lost their third game in a row to the Cleveland Browns, 17-13. The Redskins (1-3) can pin their loss on going just 1-for-11 on third downs, mental mistakes and a costly fumble by Clinton Portis on the first play after halftime that allowed Cleveland to quickly tie it. "My fumble changed the momentum," Portis said. "All of a sudden, we lost control of the game."
Mark Brunell couldn't get it back as Washington's offense sputtered again behind its new quarterback. Brunell finished 17-of-38 for 192 yards, but was unable to get into any rhythm because Cleveland's defense shut down Portis and the Washington coach's headsets and sideline phones were malfunctioning. "It made it tough to communicate," Brunell said. "We had to go to hand signals.
But the headsets didn't cause the fumbles or the overthrown passes. We made mistakes." Clinging to their four-point lead, the Browns faked a field goal, but holder Derrick Frost was stopped short of a first down. Washington took over at their own 27 yard line and Brunell then completed a 13-yard pass to Coles at the 40 with still 2:00 minutes left in the game. But Coles fumbled as he was being taken down and Browns safety Earl Little recovered. "I fumbled the game away for us," Coles said.
Coles did catch 8 passes for 122 yards, but Portis only had 58 yards rushing on 20 carries. Washington's offensive line did not give up a sack after yielding nine in the past two games.
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