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Lewis said the whistle should have been blown before the fumble because his forward progress was stopped, but the officials did not see it that way.
''I know (progress) was stopped because I kind of let up,'' Lewis said. ''You can't let the game like this fall into the hands of the referees. When you start off like we did, we have to play for four quarters. We didn't do that today.''
The critical penalty was a holding call on Darnell Dinkins during a punt return by Josh Cribbs in the final minute. Dinkins says he is innocent.
The Browns would have had the ball on the Pittsburgh 43. Instead, they started their final drive on the Browns 33. In the end, a 52-yard field goal try by Phil Dawson came up about 10 feet short.
''There is no doubt in my mind (it was a good block),'' Dinkins said. ''I destroyed him off the ball. I made a physical play and he fell. This is football, not basketball. The referee decides to say I was holding and it cost us the game. It took us out of field goal position.''
The plays that were challenged and were ruled in favor of the Browns were two first half touchdowns. One was a 16-yard pass to Braylon Edwards originally ruled incomplete.
Romeo Crennel lumbered onto the field and threw his challenge flag. The replay showed Edwards got both feet in bounds -- barely -- as he stretched over the end zone sideline to make the catch. Crennel is now 2-of-20 lifetime on challenges.
Just don't sing
The other challenge the Browns won was on a 100-yard kick return for a touchdown by Cribbs.
Cribbs muffed the kick after the Steelers took a 24-21 lead, picked the ball up at the goal line, dodged a tackler and tightroped his way down the right sideline to the end zone.
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin challenged, thinking Cribbs stepped out of bounds, but the play was not overturned.
Cribbs added to his incredible career as a kick returner earlier in the game. His 90-yard return in the second quarter set up a two-yard touchdown pass from Derek Anderson to Lawrence Vickers to make the score 14-3.
Cribbs stiff-armed defensive back Allen Rossum twice before being tackled at the 3.
Cribbs returned four kicks for 204 yards. He returned three kicks for 183 yards vs. Cincinnati in the second game. One was for 85 yards. The next week in Oakland, he returned a kick 99 yards for a touchdown.
Heading into Sunday, Cribbs was third in the NFL with a 30.2 kick return average.
It is good for Cribbs he can play football, because he will never make a living as a nightclub singer.
Cribbs, along with teammates David McMillan and Brandon McDonald, were selected to perform in a version of American Idol for the NFL Network. Cribbs sang ''My Love.'' To be tactful, he did not make it to the second round.
Wright on target
Eric Wright has grown since his first pro game in the season opener Sept. 9. In that game, Hines Ward beat him to the back right corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
Ben Roethlisberger tried to throw a similar pass to Ward from the 7 on the Steelers second possession and Wright broke it up.
In the second quarter, Wright tackled Willie Parker in the open field to hold him to a three-yard gain on third-and-13. Wright also had one of four sacks of Roethlisberger.
Wright finished with 11 tackles.
Anderson unmasked
Derek Anderson said he played ''bad'' in the second half. He was 6-of-19 for 43 yards in the final two periods and did not engineer a first down until the final drive.
He did throw 35 passes without being intercepted, but he has only 123 yards passing for the day.
Tucker starts
Ryan Tucker started at right guard in place of Seth McKinney. McKinney was placed on injured reserve Saturday with a shoulder injury. He started the first eight games.
Eric Steinbach started at left guard. There was some concern about Steinbach because he missed practice Thursday and Friday with a sore back.
Jurevicius hurt
Joe Jurevicius was hurt catching the ball for a three-yard gain to the Steelers 35 with 11 seconds left. It was a second down play.
Anderson spiked the ball to give Jurevicius time to get off the field. The spike made it fourth down.
Jurevicius declined to speak to reporters after the game. Details of the injury are unknown.
They said it
- ''We're disappointed because we could have won the game and didn't. I think this team has come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.'' -- Crennel
- ''Whether I was convinced or not, some were convinced and so I challenged it.'' -- Crennel on using two timeouts after the Steelers went ahead on a touchdown to Heath Miller
- ''We put ourselves in a great position to win the game and obviously we didn't do enough in the second half to take it home.'' -- Anderson
- ''In the first half we were kind of flat, but we came in here at halftime and said, ÔLet's buckle down. We can do this.''' -- Roethlisberger
- ''We always believed. We know we're a good team. That's the thing about it. We always try to play for 60 minutes. That's what we did today.'' -- Steelers cornerback Deshea Townsend
By the numbers
8:55 -- The Browns opening drive lasting 8 minutes, 55 seconds was their longest of the season.
10 -- Braylon Edwards caught his 10th touchdown pass of the season in the second quarter. He totaled nine in his first two seasons.
48 -- Yards of offense by the Browns in the second half.
2.2 -- Average gain per carry by the Browns on 18 attempts.
9 -- The Browns have lost to the Steelers nine straight times.
20 -- Anderson has 20 touchdown passes this season after throwing three more yesterday.
3 -- The Browns were 3-for-3 in the red zone, making them 20-of-29 for the season.
2 -- Parker rushed for 105 yards, ending the Browns streak of holding an opposing rusher under 100 yards at two.
Warm-blooded
The Ohio River begins in Pittsburgh and flows alongside Heinz Field. The temperature at kickoff yesterday was 40 degrees and it was cold enough for some fans to bundle up in hats and gloves, but the weather did not prevent a couple hardy souls from riding their jet skis on the river as players were going through their pregame warm-ups.
Happy alum
Most of the reporters on the Cleveland side of the press box yesterday were glum about Ohio State losing 28-21 to Illinois Saturday, but one person was smiling.
Former Browns left tackle Doug Dieken, now the analyst on the radio broadcasts, was drafted out of Illinois in 1971. He happily reminded anyone who would listen that last Monday he predicted the Illini would upset the Buckeyes.
No respect
Street vendors outside Heinz Field before the game weren't buying into the idea the Browns are a different team than the one that was beaten 34-7 by the Steelers in the opener. At least they were hoping customers would buy into the idea the Steelers were about to play the same old Browns.
A T-shirt for sale carried the message: ''Cleveland still sucks. Feel the Pittsburgh Steel power.''
NFL classics
The crowd in Heinz Field enthusiastically waved yellow Terrible Towels at the start of the game, but it was so stunned after the Browns took a 14-3 lead, fans did not know how to react.
A series of bone-jarring hits from previous Steelers games shown on the Jumbotron -- many of them against the Browns -- revived the crowd temporarily.
The touchdown pass to Edwards put and end to the celebrating until a fumble by Lewis in the third quarter got it going again.
JSchudel@news-herald.com
