July 31, 2000 SportsLine.com wire reports

CLEVELAND -- On a night when Courtney Brown made his NFL debut, the oldest Cleveland Brown stole the spotlight.

Ty Detmer threw two touchdown passes as the Browns beat the Philadelphia Eagles 33-22 Sunday in the preseason opener for both teams.

Detmer, Cleveland's oldest player at 32, completed 12 of 14 passes for 128 yards, and directed three TD drives for Cleveland. All the scores came against the Eagles' second-string -- something Detmer's been around long enough to appreciate.

"When you're going against the twos things seem to open up a little more than they do against the ones," Detmer said.

He capped a 53-yard drive late in the first half by throwing a 2-yard pass to a wide open Mark Campbell that put Cleveland ahead 14-10 with 1:56 left.

Paul Grasmanis muffed the ensuing kickoff and the Browns recovered at the Philadelphia 31-yard line. A pass interference penalty put Cleveland on the Eagles 1 a few plays later, and rookie Travis Prentice scored from there with 53 seconds remaining in the half to give the Browns a 21-10 lead.

On his last drive, Detmer went 4-of-5 and capped a 66-yard drive with a 13-yard TD pass to JaJuan Dawson to give Cleveland a 27-16 lead with 5:17 left in the third quarter. Cleveland went for a two-point conversion, but Detmer's pass fell incomplete.

"I saw the field real well, had great protection -- which helps -- and our receivers were real sharp, which was encouraging because we've got a lot of young guys," Detmer said.

Brown, the first overall pick in the draft, started the game. He had no tackles but seemed to hold his own in about a quarter of play. Although he was fooled by a fake on the game's first play -- a 9-yard completion from Donovan McNabb to Cecil Martin -- the defensive end from Penn State also knocked down McNabb on one pass rush.

"I felt comfortable after the first play," Brown said. "I think I did OK. I did some things wrong, though. I need to work a little on the detail stuff -- the defensive calls and adjusting quicker."

The good news for Philadelphia was its starters outperformed their Cleveland counterparts.

The Eagles defense held the Browns to 25 yards of offense in the first quarter, and set up Philadelphia's first touchdown when Brian Dawkins intercepted a pass by Tim Couch that deflected off Kevin Johnson's hands. Dawkins returned it 44 yards to the Browns 4. After an incompletion, McNabb threw a TD pass to Duce Staley.

On Philadelphia's next possession, McNabb completed five straight passes before misfiring on two, stalling the drive. David Akers then kicked a 45-yard field goal to put the Eagles ahead 10-0 with 2:11 left in the quarter.

Akers also kicked a 37-yard field with seven seconds left in the first half and Rich Maston added a 20-yard field goal with 8:25 remaining in the third.

"Initially, the offense came out and played very well in the first quarter," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "When the second team defense had their opportunities there were obviously too many mistakes."

Koy Detmer answered his brother's last TD by throwing a 40-yard TD pass to Alex Van Dyke on the Eagles' next play from scrimmage to cut the Cleveland lead to 27-22 with 4:47 left in the third quarter. The two-point conversion attempt failed.

Couch started the game but only got the Browns moving after the Eagles put their second-team defense in the game.

"I started out a little anxious and rushed a few throws," Couch said. "The speed of the game definitely picked up over practice."

Early in the second quarter, Couch scrambled 20 yards for a first down, then threw a 47-yard pass to David Patten, who outwrestled Allen Rossum to make the catch at the Eagles 2-yard line. Patten had five catches for 95 yards on the night.

Errict Rhett plunged into the line three times, finally scoring to cut the Eagles lead to 10-7 with 8:29 left in the first half.

Rahshon Spikes closed out the scoring with a 12-yard scoring run with 8:43 left in the game. The Browns failed on another two-point conversion attempt.

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