Browns top Texans
CLEVELAND -- His body bruised and a nasty knot swelling on his forehead, Kellen Winslow slid into the seat at the front of the interview room and looked out at the overflow crowd.
"I feel like the President," he said, smiling.
Though not a politician, Winslow has delivered on a promise that once seemed utterly preposterous. A few months back, he vowed the Cleveland Browns, a recent model of dysfunction, would surprise this season.
Who knew?
"I told you we were going to turn some heads," he said.
Derek Anderson threw 2 touchdown passes, Jamal Lewis rushed for 134 yards and a TD and Winslow had 10 catches as the Browns, whose season has been filled with drama, controversy and overtimes, improved their playoff profile with a routine 27-17 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday.
With their fifth straight victory at home and fifth win in six games overall, the Browns (7-4) stayed within striking distance of first-place Pittsburgh in the AFC North and among the wild-card contenders.
In fact, if the season ended today, the Browns would qualify for the postseason.
"We kind of control our own destiny," said linebacker Andra Davis, one of the few Browns still around from Cleveland's 2002 playoff team. "I've been waiting a long time to say that."
Cleveland played perhaps its most well-rounded game of 2007, and for the first time in four weeks, the Browns didn't have to sweat out the final seconds. Their three previous games had all been decided by 3 points, two in OT.
Last week, they needed an unforgettable 51-yard field goal at the end of regulation by Phil Dawson to slip past Baltimore.
But when Lewis barreled in from the 1-yard line with 5:48 left, the Browns led 27-10 and were far enough ahead that a late touchdown by the Texans did nothing more than make the score look more respectable.
"That was nice," Anderson said. "It's much better than a 1-point win."
The Texans (5-6) weren't able to do much against Cleveland's league-worst defense, which was missing two injured starters.
Houston quarterback Matt Schaub finished 22 of 36 for 256 yards and 2 TDs. But he was picked off twice and had several other passes batted down by the Browns' suspect secondary, which lost rookie starting cornerback Eric Wright to a knee injury last week.
The Texans also had a costly fumble in the third quarter.
"We put ourselves in a tough situation," Schaub said. "The turnovers really hurt us. That's been our Achilles' heel all season. We just didn't make the plays. I threw a couple of interceptions and we didn't move the ball."
Not wanting to get too far ahead of themselves, the Browns, who wore throwback uniforms from the 1950s against the Texans, implemented a no-talking-about-the-playoffs policy in their locker room last week.
It might be time to lift the ban.
"We'll worry about the playoffs if that times comes," wide receiver Joe Jurevicius said. "If we can build on this and just lay one brick per week, we'll have a nice house at the end of the year."