DETROIT - There wasn't a need to hand out food boxes to the Cleveland Browns after their 38-37 loss to the Lions here Sunday at Ford Field.

Not many of the players and coaches had the stomach to handle food after losing on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Brandon Pettigrew with 0:00 showing on the clock.

"I'm sick with the way this thing ended," Browns coach Eric Mangini said. "We knew the game was going to go back and forth. We knew what we had to do defensively. We got up big, and then they came back, and then to have the game come down to a pass interference I'm sick about it."

The game matched two of the NFL's worst defenses, not to mention two of the worst teams. The Browns (1-9), who've had trouble scoring points all season, erupted for 24 points in the first half to lead by 21 points, 24-3. The Lions (2-8) regrouped and steadily chipped away until getting the interference call that set up the dramatic game-winning score.

The penalty was called on defensive back Hank Poteat, who appeared to push receiver Bryant Johnson to the ground at the back of the end zone. Meanwhile, Stafford's pass for Calvin Johnson was intercepted by safety Brodney Pool.

The penalty moved the ball from the Browns' 32 to the 1 with no time showing on the clock. Daunte Culpepper came in at quarterback to replace Stafford, who was hurt when leveled by C.J. Mosley. When the Browns called a timeout to reset their defense, Stafford was allowed to re-enter the game.

Stafford, who threw for 422 yards and five touchdowns, then connected with Pettigrew, who shortened a post pattern and hauled in the pass to tie the score. Jason Hanson kicked the extra point to give the Lions the win.

The final seconds set off plenty of discussion in the Browns' locker room. Poteat was under the impression that the rules allowed him to knock Bryant Johnson out of bounds once Stafford scrambled out of the pocket.

What Poteat wasn't allowed to do was knock down Bryant Johnson. Once that happened, the flag was thrown and the Lions were given another chance.

"I'm just upset that my team fought so hard to put us in a situation to win and then to have it come down to a penalty I caused," Poteat said.

The emotional strain of the loss was etched on Mangini's face. This was a game he thought was headed for the win column after quarterback Brady Quinn threw three touchdowns passes in the first quarter.

The Browns' inability to hold the lead can be attributed to a weak defensive performance, conservative play-calling after getting the big lead and poor time management.

The latter surfaced when a pass play was called after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter and the Lions out of timeouts. If the Browns, leading 37-31, had run the ball on the third-and-5 play from their 42 and not gained the first down, approximately another 30 seconds would have elapsed before the punt. Instead, the clock stopped after the incompletion and the Lions regained possession at their 12 with 1:46 remaining.

"I thought about that (running the ball), but I thought we had a chance to win the game with that play," Mangini said of a short Quinn pass for Mohamed Massaquoi. "I thought they would blitz it and we'd get off coverage and hit the receiver. That's when we would have been able to take the knee."

Massaquoi ran a short hook pattern just beyond the first-down marker. Quinn's pass was too far to the outside for Massaquoi to get a hand on it.

"They brought more pressure than we could handle," Quinn said. "I tried to get it out quick. We didn't convert."

Another missed chance for the Browns occurred late in the second quarter. The Browns moved from their 20 to the Lions' 11. With the clock showing six second remaining, kicker Phil Dawson, who completed a pass to Mike Furrey on a fake kick a play earlier, kicked a 29-yard field goal to give the Browns a 27-24 halftime lead.

The Browns and Lions both called one timeout on the drive, but Mangini didn't use either of his two remaining timeouts. If he had, the Browns would have had time to go for a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal.

"We wanted to make sure we used the time to take the last shot and make sure we didn't give them the ball back with time to have a two-minute drive," Mangini said.

The strategy almost worked when Quinn lofted a pass to running back Chris Jennings on the play before Dawson's pass to Furrey. Jennings was open after curling around a defender, but he dropped the ball just before stepping into the end zone.

The Browns had most of the 43,170 fans booing with an explosive first quarter. Quinn connected with a wide open Massaquoi on a 59-yard touchdown pass after Dawson and Hanson had exchanged field goals. Quinn added a 40-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Chansi Stuckey and a 4-yard touchdown pass to Joshua Cribbs to give the Browns a 21-point cushion.

Quinn had his best day as a pro in completing 21-of-33 passes for 304 yards and four touchdowns. Offensive coordinator Brian Daboll drifted away from a pass-first mentality after the Browns had the big lead, which played into the hands of the defensively-challenged Lions.

The Lions began their comeback when Stafford threw a 26-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Brown on a slip screen. Stafford connected with running back Kevin Smith for 25 yards and a touchdown in the second period, and he followed with a 75-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Johnson as the Lions tied the score, 24-24.

Dawon's 29-yard field goal followed.

Stafford put the Lions ahead with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Will Heller in the third quarter. The Browns registered a safety when Stafford was penalized for intentional grounding in the end zone.

The Browns regained the lead at 37-31 when Quinn scrambled out of trouble and connected with Michael Gaines on a 2-yard scoring play with 5:44 remaining in the fourth period. Gaines caught the ball short of the goal line but powered his way into the end zone.

Brodney Pool intercepted a Stafford pass in the end zone on the next possession to set up what could have been a game-clinching drive for the Browns.

The Browns are at Cincinnati Sunday.

mmclain@tribtoday.com