CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns’ trophy collection isn’t especially impressive this season.

A 3-5 Browns record is what it is. But the quality of the three wins, well….Cleveland has wins over the NFL’s only winless team (Indianaplis Colts), over a one-win team (Miami Dolphins) and a two-win team (Seattle Seahawks).

But, opportunity knocks. Looking ahead just a bit, the Browns could get to .500 by winning their next two games: against the St. Louis Rams, who are 1-7, on Sunday, and against the 2-6 Jacksonville Jaguars on Nov. 20. Both games will be at Browns Stadium.

First, the Browns game against the Rams on Sunday. St. Louis was 7-9 last season with Pat Shurmur as its offensive coordinator. Shurmur, of course, is in his first season as the Browns’ head coach.

The Rams’ game results this season, in order: 31-13 loss to Philadelphia; 28-16 loss at the New York Giants; 37-7 loss to Baltimore; 17-10 loss to Washington; 24-3 loss at Green Bay; 34-7 loss at Dallas; 31-21 win vs. New Orleans; 19-13 loss (overtime) at Arizona.

The Browns’ results: 27-17 loss to Cincinnati; 27-19 win at Indianapolis; 17-16 win vs. Miami; 31-13 loss to Tennessee; 24-17 loss at Oakland; 6-3 win vs. Seattle; 20-10 loss at San Francisco; 30-12 loss at Houston.

Cleveland’s history with the Rams goes back to before the Browns existed. The Rams’ franchise began in Cleveland in 1937, and continued here through 1945. The Cleveland Rams played their last game before moving to Los Angeles on Dec. 16, 1945, and it was for the NFL championship. The Rams defeated the Washington Redskins, 15-14, before 32,178 fans who braved sub-zero temperatures at Cleveland Stadium.

The Browns were born in 1946, and after winning all four championship games in All-America Football Conference history (1946-49), joined the NFL in 1950. Ironically, Cleveland won the 1950 NFL championship by defeating the Rams, 30-28, at Cleveland Stadium. In 1951, the Browns lost the NFL title game to the Rams, 24-17, at Los Angeles. Then, in 1955, Cleveland captured the league title with a 38-14 rout of the Rams in LA, in quarterback Otto Graham’s final game.

Click on to the games in the paragraph above to read The Plain Dealer’s game stories. They are included in cleveland.com’s Browns History Database, which includes Plain Dealer game stories on every regular season and playoff game in Browns history through 2010.

The Browns and Rams have played 18 regular season games, with a 9-9 split. The teams have met just three times since the Rams moved from Los Angeles to St. Louis prior to the 1995 season, the Rams winning twice.

The last game between the teams was on Oct. 28, 2007, when Cleveland won at St. Louis, 27-20, making the Browns 4-3 and the Rams 0-8. Tony Grossi wrote The Plain Dealer’s game story. Browns quarterback Derek Anderson completed 18 of 25 passes for three touchdowns with no interceptions. Braylon Edwards caught eight passes for 117 yards and two touchdowns and Joe Jurevicius had five catches for 76 yards.

Cleveland Browns host the St. Louis Rams: Who will win and by how much?

CLEVELAND, Ohio — At one point during a timeout in the Browns’ game on Sunday, the scoreboard showed video of a live wedding proposal in progress. It would be the best pass of the day.

The Browns and Seattle Seahawks engaged in one of those games that merit “instant classic” status for the wrong reasons. The Browns emerged victorious, 6-3, when Phil Dawson squeezed in field goals of 52 and 53 yards in between attempts of 48 and 24 that were blocked.

“The prettiest 2-for-4 day that we’ll ever have,” said Dawson, who never made two over 50 — and never had two blocked — in an NFL game before.

They were enough to level the Browns’ record at 3-3, giving them their first win in a month. It was a grinder, so painful to watch that coach Pat Shurmur remarked that he felt sore after the game.

But just think of how badly the Seahawks felt on their long flight home after falling to 2-4.

“I don’t want to disrespect Cleveland,” said Seahawks receiver Mike Williams. “But we are better.”

Another oddity of this game featured 44 runs by the Browns, including 33 by Montario Hardesty for 95 yards. Who’d have thought the Browns would have tried that against the stout Seattle rush defense and without Peyton Hillis, who was out with a hamstring injury?

Hardesty got some relief on third downs from practice squad-pickup Chris Ogbonnaya, who carried three times and became Colt McCoy’s favorite receiver for the day with five catches.

“Anybody who wants to watch running football, you got a chance,” said Shurmur, in what sounded like a veiled shot at critics of his offense. The extreme ball control game plan enabled the Browns to keep the ball for 42:56 — their most possession time since at least 1976.

This was the fourth 6-3 game in Browns’ history and fourth win, starting with Jim Brown’s rookie debut in 1957. There was a win in Kansas City in the 1988 season opener when Bernie Kosar’s throwing elbow was wrenched on a blitz. There was that dreadful 6-3 slugfest in Orchard Park, N.Y., in 2009 when Derek Anderson completed two of 17 passes against Buffalo.

Coincidentally, the Bills’ head coach on that day was Dick Jauron. Instead of dodging brickbats from irate fans, Jauron was taking bows on Sunday because his defense saved the day.

“You can’t start out talking about this game unless you talk about the performance of the defense,” Shurmur said. “When you hold a team in the NFL to three points, that’s outstanding.”

The Browns defused Seattle’s gimmicky no-huddle offense by forcing punts four times after three-play series and twice after just one first down. They held the Seahawks to 137 net yards — fewest permitted by a Browns defense since 1993. Without feature back Marshawn Lynch, who was a late scratch because of a back injury, quarterback Charlie Whitehurst was a lost puppy on a freeway.

The Browns forced 18 incompletions on 30 attempts, sacked Whitehurst three times, forced a fumble and intercepted him once when cornerback Sheldon Brown expertly posted up Sidney Rice at the Browns’ 19 in the third quarter.

Their finest moment came later in the quarter after giving up their only big play, a 38-yard reception by Rice on a communication breakdown. Rice would graciously step out of bounds at the Browns’ 9 without being pushed, or that play might have lost the Browns the game.

Whitehurst couldn’t score from the 9 if he had 100 snaps. The Seahawks made it to the 2 — on a penalty against Ahtyba Rubin — then were repelled on a run stop for no gain and two Whitehurst incompletions, the last being defensed by T.J. Ward.

“Today was a good example of how good we can be,” said Ward, whose blind-side blitz of Whitehurst produced the fumble that led to the Browns’ first field goal.

Steven Hauschka’s 20-yard field goal tied the score at 3-3. That’s as close as either team got to a touchdown.

McCoy was not much better, but he showed a lot more grit. He got banged around most of the day. Other than an interception on his first series of the second half, McCoy was able to keep possession and convert a good percentage of third downs (12 of 24).

He completed four of five short passes on the drive following Hauschka’s kick and edged just far enough for Dawson’s 53-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter. Then he maintained possession for almost seven more minutes on his next series — pulling off a great escape on a 12-yard scramble on third-and-11 — to set up what should have been an easy Dawson chip shot from 24 yards.

But Red Bryant, Seattle’s 323-pound defensive end, plowed inside for his second block of the game with 3:05 to go.

“I don’t know what happened,” said rookie guard Jason Pinkston, who lined up at left tackle on both blocks and saw Bryant storm inside him. “There’s four guys and two gaps and we’re trying to block them all. We’ll get it fixed.”

(After two weeks of special teams breakdowns, Dawson noted that former special teams coach Brad Seely “is waiting for us in San Francisco,” where the Browns play next Sunday.)

McCoy finished 20-of-35 for 178 yards and was sacked five times. His one interception helped to lower his passer rating to 59.0 — still 24 points higher than Whitehurst.

“I have never been a part of something like that,” McCoy said. “I don’t remember ever playing in a game and not scoring a touchdown or not being in the red zone until the very end.”

McCoy can consider himself in good company now. Jim Brown and Bernie Kosar and Derek Anderson all experienced one of these. It’s a Browns tradition.

On Twitter: @TonyGrossi

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Cleveland Browns host the Seattle Seahawks at Browns Stadium on Sunday.

Both teams are 2-3. It could probably be said, however, that the Seahawks’ 2-3 is looking a little “better” than the Browns’ 2-3.

Seattle began the season with two road losses: to the San Francisco 49ers, 33-17, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-0.

The Seahawks won their home opener, 13-10, over the Arizona Cardinals, then lost at home, 30-28, to the Atlanta Falcons.

Seattle then went to New York on Oct. 9 and earned a 36-25 upset win over the Giants.

Now, Seattle is well-rested as it begins serious preparation for the Browns. The Seahawks are coming off their bye week.

Playing after their own bye week did the Browns no good on Sunday in Oakland, as they lost to the Raiders, 24-17.

Cleveland’s two wins are over teams with a combined 0-10 record. After losing their season opener, 27-17, at home to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Browns won two straight: over the Colts, 27-19, in Indianapolis, and over the Miami Dolphins, 17-16, in Cleveland.

A 31-13 loss at home to the Tennessee Titans preceded the Browns’ bye week and the loss at Oakland.

The Browns are 5-11 all-time against the Seahawks, who joined the NFL as an expansion franchise for the 1976 season. Cleveland is 2-4 at home against Seattle and 3-7 on the road.

The teams last met on Nov. 4, 2007, in Cleveland. The Browns won, 33-30, on a 25-yard field goal by Phil Dawson. Cleveland.com’s Browns History Database includes Plain Dealer game stories on every Browns’ regular season and playoff game in history. Tony Grossi wrote the Browns-Seahawks game story.

Derek Anderson completed 29 of 48 passes for 364 yards as the Browns’ quarterback that day, connecting with tight end Kellen Winslow, Jr., for 11 completions and 125 yards. Cleveland running back Jamal Lewis had a strange game, with 20 carries for 37 yards — including a long gain of five yards — but four touchdowns.

Matt Hasselbeck was Seattle’s QB. He threw for 318 yards and two touchdowns, completing 30 of 47 passes. Wide receiver Bobby Engram caught 14 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown.

Cleveland Browns host the Seattle Seahawks: Who will win and by how much?

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Confession time: I didn’t see this coming.

Did you think the Browns really could win this game? That Colt McCoy could put together the best, most meaningful drive of his young pro career on an afternoon where he often appeared as shaky as his passes?

Didn’t you believe the excessive celebration penalty — and the horse-collar tackling penalty — and some other penalty or blown assignment would cost the Browns what became a 17-16 victory over Miami? Didn’t you fear that Miami quarterback Chad Henne would complete a couple of clutch passes to set up a field goal as the clock turned to 0:00?

“We lost a lot of games like that last year,” said Joshua Cribbs. “But that’s a thing of the past.”

How about losing games exactly like this on this exact same field for much of the last decade? Games Cribbs said “We should win.”

This time, the Browns did just that. They won despite what coach Pat Shurmur called “a freighter full of mistakes,” despite Peyton Hillis being out with a strep throat. They won despite Mohamed Massaquoi unable to practice with a sore ankle, and Cribbs unable to return punts and kicks because of a groin injury — yet finding a way to make his own jump-for-joy touchdown catch in the second quarter.

They won because they made the two biggest plays of the game. They won for a fan base that watched the team improve to 2-1 for the first time since 2002.

They won with a rookie coach, a new offense and defense and a quarterback making only his 11th pro start.

Maybe everyone being so new is why.

McCoy and the drive

Trailing, 16-10, McCoy authored an 80-yard drive that began with 3:23 left. He trudged onto the field with a Derek Anderson-like 10-of-26 passing line to his name. But Shurmur put the game in McCoy’s hands. No-huddle offense. Throw on every down. Hurry up, but don’t rush. Spread the ball around.

“One drive and we can win this thing,” McCoy said in the huddle. Then he completed nine of 13 passes to win the thing.

When it seemed Massaquoi was hurting and discouraged, he suddenly leaped as high as the Terminal Tower to snare a game-deciding 14-yard catch. The ball seemed to hang in the air longer than the Goodyear Blimp. Massaquoi and two Miami defenders left their feet at the same second, with it appearing that the pass was too long, that Massaquoi would catch it, but out of bounds.

But he grabbed it with 10 sticky fingers, with two feet in the end zone. Touchdown. With 43 seconds left, the Browns had transformed a 16-10 loss into a stunning victory.

“Colt knows how to win games,” said Shurmur.

When was the last time that was said about a Browns quarterback not named Bernie Kosar?

It’s never easy

But these are the Browns, so you know there were scary moments ahead.

After Massaquoi’s touchdown, they drew a flag for excessive celebration. Then Dimitri Patterson was flagged for an illegal tackle on the kickoff.

Miami had the ball on the Browns’ 47 with 36 seconds and one timeout left. All the Dolphins needed was a couple of completions and a field goal — and it would have been another discouraging day at the lakefront. Instead, Chad Henne threw three incompletions, then fired an interception to Michael Adams.

“The defense did a tremendous job of battling, play by play,” said Shurmur.

You can point to the Browns holding Miami to one touchdown. You can point to five sacks, and a strong performance by the defensive line. Or to D’Qwell Jackson’s 11 tackles and one fumble recovery. Or Joe Haden keeping star receiver Brandon Marshall under control (four catches for 43 yards). Or Ahtbya Rubin all over the field with nine tackles, 1.5 sacks, two more quarterback hits. Or Jayme Mitchell with 1.5 sacks and forcing a fumble.

Or to simply say when the Browns needed its defense, the defense delivered. When it was over, fans cheered and stomped and more than a few chanted, “Here we go Brownies, here we go … Woof, woof!”

“These are games we should win,” said Cribbs.

This time, they actually did just that.

BEREA(AP) — Colt McCoy wears No. 12. For the Cleveland Browns, he’s also No. 10.

It’s a number they’d like to stay stuck on.

On Sunday against Cincinnati, McCoy will become the 10th different quarterback to start a season opener for the Browns since 1999, an astonishing statistic and perhaps the single biggest reason the franchise has failed miserably during an expansion era of losses. McCoy follows Ty Detmer, Tim Couch, Kelly Holcomb, Jeff Garcia, Trent Dilfer, Charlie Frye, Derek Anderson, Brady Quinn and Jake Delhomme as quarterbacks to begin the year as Cleveland’s starter.

“I hope it stays like this for a while,” McCoy said Wednesday.

In the NFL, quarterback consistency is vital to success. With a revolving door at the game’s most important position, it’s no wonder the Browns have only made the playoffs once and lost at least 10 games nine times in 12 years. Cleveland has been searching for a leader to guide them from the dismal darkness and back to respectability.

McCoy, who showed grit and toughness in eight starts in 2010, just might be the one.

And this season, anyway, he’ll get the chance to succeed or fail.

McCoy’s rise from third-round draft pick to starter happened quickly.

Rewind to last season’s opener. The former Texas star was a raw, out-of-sight, out-of-mind rookie running Cleveland’s scout team in practice. While Delhomme and backup Seneca Wallace took all the snaps, McCoy stood to the side waiting and wondering if his time would ever come.

Buried on the depth chart, McCoy was inactive when the Browns traveled to Tampa Bay in Week 1. But things changed in a hurry. Delhomme severely sprained his ankle against the Buccaneers, Wallace went down with same injury in Week 5, and suddenly McCoy was thrust into a starting role few believed he was ready to handle.

“He was kind of thrown into the fire,” Browns first-year coach Pat Shurmur said.

His personal inferno began in Pittsburgh, where McCoy made his first career start against the Steelers and in front of their Terrible Towel-waving fans. The night before the game, McCoy stood up at a meeting and told his teammates not to worry, he was ready to handle the job.

Browns cornerback Sheldon Brown feared for McCoy.

“I thought, this poor kid,” Brown said. “I hope he’s praying.”

But McCoy proved he belonged, completing 23 of 33 passes for 281 yards despite being sacked five times and pressured numerous others. It was there, at the confluence of Pittsburgh’s three rivers that many of Cleveland’s players became convinced they had found their leader.

“He wasn’t scared,” Brown said. “That’s one of the toughest defenses in the National Football League and he went in there and he held his own.”

 Then we put him in there against New Orleans, New England. Go back to some of the games he played and you look at his aura on the field and his demeanor, you just know that if you surround him with the players that can make plays for him — he’s not going to turn the ball over, he’s going to make the correct reads and the better part is, if he makes those mistakes, he’ll work his tail off to fix it.

“That’s when you know you have a guy.”

Shurmur thinks so, too.

Cleveland’s fifth coach since ’99, Shurmur has been impressed with everything about McCoy. During the labor lockout, it was McCoy who organized practices in Austin, Texas. At those workouts, dubbed “Camp Colts” by his teammates, McCoy and the Browns took their first initial steps in learning Shurmur’s West Coast offense, a passer friendly system the team feels perfectly suits McCoy’s accurate — if not strong — right arm.

McCoy also took it upon himself to visit Brett Favre, hoping a few days in Mississippi picking the brain of the former league MVP would help him better understand the new offense. McCoy came to camp prepared and then played extremely well in Cleveland’s three exhibition games.

“He basically did what we wanted and now the next step is to do it for 60 minutes in a regular-season game,” Shurmur said. “He has been passing the tests as we’ve gone along, and Sunday will be the next test.”

McCoy has done his homework.

“Now is where it counts,” he said.

Composed whether he’s calling a play in the huddle, facing a blitz or surrounded by cameras at his locker, McCoy insists he’s not feeling any added pressure as he embarks on his second season as a pro. A coach’s son, this is what he’s been groomed to do since he was a kid.

Now is when the fun starts.

“I’ve come a long ways,” McCoy said. “But I’ve still got plenty of work to do, no question. This team is ready to start, ready for the regular season. This is where it starts counting. For us, we’ve put in a lot of hours, a lot of time. We’ve worked hard together, now I think we kind of know some of the things we’re good at, some of the things we’re not as good at. Those things we’ll keep working on. But I think we’re ready to put a plan together and go see what happens.”

Notes: The Browns have some offensive line issues to resolve in the next few days. Starting right tackle Tony Pashos didn’t practice and still has a walking boot on his left foot. Also, Shurmur hasn’t decided whether he’ll start rookie Jason Pinkston at left guard. … TE Ben Watson, LB Chris Gocong and S Usama Young returned to practice on a limited basis. … WR Greg Little was chosen winner of the Maurice Bassett Award, given annually by the media to the top first-year player in training camp. … On Sunday, McCoy will square off with Bengals rookie QB Andy Dalton. They played each other in college when McCoy was at Texas and Dalton at TCU. McCoy only remembered a few details of their previous meeting. “They came to us,” McCoy said, “and we beat ’em pretty bad.”