Browns surprise Vikings for 1st win

Hoyer’s 3 TD passes to Cameron help lift Cleveland to road victory

Cleveland tight end Jordan Cameron catches a seven-yard touchdown pass against Minnesota’s Harrison Smith.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Cleveland tight end Jordan Cameron catches a seven-yard touchdown pass against Minnesota’s Harrison Smith.

MINNEAPOLIS — The young running back was traded away, the third-stringer was picked to start at quarterback, and Cleveland's jaded fan base was already pushing this week for the first pick in next year's draft.

The Browns haven't given up on the season, though.

Minnesota's might be slipping away.

Jordan Cameron caught three touchdown passes, including the go-ahead grab in the back of the end zone with 51 seconds left, and the Browns kept the Vikings winless with a 31-27 victory Sunday.

It was the first career win as a head coach for Toledo native Rob Chudzinski.

"If you let the distractions that are outside of the locker room affect the way you play, then you are tanking the season and you will have no chance," said Joe Thomas, the three-time All-Pro left tackle.

Brian Hoyer threw for three scores in his second career start, and the Browns (1-2) became the latest team to torch Minnesota's struggling secondary, which lost top cornerback Chris Cook to a groin injury in the first quarter. Hoyer overcame three interceptions to throw for 321 yards, going 30 for 54. Josh Gordon had 10 catches for 146 yards and a touchdown in his season debut, and Cameron had six receptions for 66 yards.

"It's just a matter of believing in Brian and believing in ourselves, and we did a good job of that," Cameron said.

Christian Ponder ran for two touchdowns for the Vikings (0-3), but he threw an interception, lost a fumble and took his sixth sack on the final play of the game. The Vikings went three-and-out six times, twice in the fourth quarter when they could've put the game away.

Ponder almost hit Jerome Simpson in a crowd at the goal line on the penultimate play, but the Vikings didn't get closer than the 34.

Browns quarterback Brian Hoyer (30 of 54 for 321 yards) passes the ball while getting pressured by Minnesota defensive tackle Sharrif Floyd.

"We've got to look ourselves in the mirror and change this around quickly, because we're going to make sure this doesn't steamroll and snowball downhill," Ponder said.

After scoring 16 points over the first two games, dealing 2012 first-round draft pick Trent Richardson to Indianapolis and putting Hoyer in for the injured Brandon Weeden, the Browns looked finished. They were behind 7-0 after a long Vikings touchdown drive and a 45-second possession of their own forced a punt.

But they held Adrian Peterson to 88 yards and one score on 25 rushes, used a fake punt and a fake field goal in the first half to build a lead and kept the Vikings from scoring after Hoyer's first two interceptions. The third one, by Erin Henderson, set up Ponder's scramble for 8 yards to tie the game late in the third quarter.

The Vikings got Blair Walsh's second field goal of the game with 10:47 remaining, but they stalled at the 12 and missed an opportunity there, too. The defense held the Browns without scoring for seven straight possessions, but like last week in the one-point loss at Chicago faltered on the final drive when the failure stung the most.

"I don't know if guys underestimated the Browns coming in or what the deal was, but we have to take a long look in the mirror and get better," said defensive end Jared Allen, who was held without a sack or a tackle and was credited with one quarterback pressure against Thomas.

The Browns started at their 45 with 3:21 left and finished the commanding march with a 7-yard pass by Hoyer to the corner for Cameron, the budding standout tight end Cameron who has 20 catches for 267 yards and four scores already this year.

Hoyer, who played for New England and Arizona after a nondescript career at Michigan State, grew up in a suburb of Cleveland rooting for the Browns. So he knew how the fans were feeling after the Richardson trade.

"I used to think that way, too. Hopefully this is a change," Hoyer said.

Hoyer, whose wife is due with the couple's second child on Oct. 21, joked he hoped he didn't send her into labor early with the wild finish. Trailing by three, the Browns could've settled for a short tying field goal. But kicker Billy Cundiff was hurting with a quadriceps problem, so that wasn't a guarantee.

"I told the guys in the huddle, 'Let's just go win it right here,'" Hoyer said.

NOTES: Punter/​holder Spencer Lanning threw the TD pass to Cameron on the fake FG in the second quarter. He also kicked the last extra point, with Cundiff hurting. According to the NFL, Lanning became the first player since 1968 with a punt, extra point and TD pass in one game. ... The Vikings have been out-sacked by their opponents 10-4.

Officials’ mistake costly to Vikings

Referee Bill Leavy mistakenly penalized the Vikings after coach Leslie Frazier tried to challenge a ruling on a muffed punt in the second quarter against the Browns.

It was the second big miscue for Leavy's crew in the season's first three weeks.

When Browns punt returner Travis Benjamin muffed the punt, Vikings linebacker Larry Dean scooped the ball up and headed to the end zone. The officials correctly ruled the Vikings could not advance a muffed punt and awarded Minnesota the ball at the Cleveland 26.

Frazier threw the red flag to challenge. But NFL rules stipulate changes of possession can only be reviewed from the booth. Leavy then issued a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct.

But a rule change this offseason — the so-called "Jim Schwartz rule" which was written after the Lions coach challenged a touchdown last season — said the Vikings should have been charged a timeout and not penalized the yardage.

"A timeout should have been charged instead of a 15-yard penalty," Leavy said.

The error proved costly for the Vikings. Instead of a first-and-10 at the Browns 26 with two timeouts and over two minutes remaining in the first half, the Vikings were pushed back to a first-and-25 at the Cleveland 41. After three passes from Christian Ponder, they settled for a 43-yard field goal by Blair Walsh.

"It turned out to be a muff, which you can't review," Frazier said. "Should've been a timeout [taken away], but they walked off 15. Not sure why. But I can't throw the red flag in that situation."

Leavy's crew was at the center of criticism in the first week when the San Francisco 49ers hosted Green Bay. The 49ers were given an extra third down in the first half of the game and wound up scoring a touchdown on it.