BRONCOS 23, BROWNS 20, OT

The final score is painfully familiar, matching that of the epic 1987 AFC Championship Game featuring “The Drive.”

This one hurts too, because the Browns marched into Denver depleted and drained, yet came within a minute of knocking their longtime nemesis out of the playoffs, or at least seriously damaging their chances.

Not that it’s much consolation, but this game wins the Browns season award for Best Effort in a Losing Cause. In the altitude, these guys showed attitude.

And Coach Butch Davis showed some raw emotion, shedding a few tears after the game. “This makes me sick for those kids. They deserve a win,” he said. “People in this organization are straining like you have no idea to try to win a ball game, and to see them go out there and fight as hard as they did to try and win a ball game and come up short, it hurts. I don’t like a bit of it.”

I’ll tell you what I did like:

–Kickoffs that flew through the end zone for touchbacks.

–An air-it-out, go-for-broke, play-to-win game plan that featured several long passes, some trick plays, and no prevent defense. Even if some of these moves backfired in their execution (Boyer’s shovel pass, Couch’s interception, Lelie’s last-minute grab over the stumbling Michael Lehan), without that approach, this game would hardly have been worth watching.

–The running style of Lee Suggs. I would’ve liked to see more of it, especially in short-yardage situations, such as that goal-line grind in the first half that took five downs and a pass to score from the one.

–Three sacks and five tackles for a loss on running plays. For some reason, Gerard Warren came to life yesterday and showed us what we’ve been expecting to see for three years.

So why did the Browns lose this game?

–Once again, they lost third down on both sides of the ball, converting just 2 of 11 on offense while allowing over 50% on defense. The Browns had third and three-or-less five times, and not once did they manage to get the first down.

–With Denver more than doubling the Browns’ time of possession, our defense wore down, making the overtime drive inevitable.

–Among the myriad injuries, we played without our three best cornerbacks. A position of strength became a liability. Daylon McCutcheon and Lewis Sanders were out, and Anthony Henry was limited to nickle and dime packages. I thought Roosevelt Williams and Michael Lehan filled in fairly well, but eventually this weakness was exposed on the last-minute bomb that put the Broncos within field goal range.

So despite the 4-10 record, the team has rebounded from its midseason malaise with two straight scrappy performances. It appears that team president Carmen Policy is duly satisfied, and so Butch will be back next year, and he won’t be forced to share power with a general manager. It’s pretty clear that offensive coordinator Bruce Ariens will be this year’s sacrificial coordinator, following Foge Fazio into the sunset.

The Browns are now guaranteed to finish at least three games worse than last year. That has happened seven other times since Art Modell bought the team in 1961. In six of those seven cases, the head coach was not retained. The only coach who survived such a downturn, Sam Rutigliano, followed up with a 14-20 record before getting the axe. Butch needs to do better than that, and any further talk of a contract extension beyond 2005 should absolutely be shelved until the Browns return to the playoffs.