The home portion ends today before many empty seats with winter arriving. The jewels turned out to be fake.

At stake is the degrading struggle to see whether the Browns can be less of a civic embarrassment here than the Cincinnati Bengals are there. This game is about pride.

But pride, as well as victory, is hard to come by in the culture of alibiing the Browns have fostered.

I can't say it comes from the top because Claude Rains appears to be the owner. Scratch the word "appears." Randy Lerner is the Invisible Man. Sightings are even rarer than of Punxsutawney Phil Savage, the general manager.

The Browns' front office has done little but produce "spin" since the team returned, from show ponies like Carmen Policy and Butch Davis to Savage, who said, with a shrug, that he only picks the 53-man roster and it's up to Romeo Crennel to coach 'em up.

Did anyone, besides Braylon Edwards, think the fans boo him because he went to Michigan?

(Oh, wait. Savage, who first floated that bit of nonsense a couple of years ago, probably does.)

Edwards has dropped 18 balls this year. He has scored three touchdowns. He caught 80 for 16 TDs last year.

If Edwards were in charge of dropping the illuminated ball in Times Square on New Year's Eve at midnight, the kazoos and kisses would probably start at 11:45.

Did anyone besides Jamal Lewis think his decline was solely because offensive coordinator Rob Chudzinski didn't get him the ball enough? (Well, not after Chudzinski got him the ball enough.)

Crennel has comported himself like the franchise's grown-up, answering questions, as Savage retreated to his burrow, about the GM's spats with players and fans. But let us not go overboard with the embattled coach.

He was brought in to restore personal accountability from the players. So why did Derek Anderson stay in the lineup so long? Is there no penalty for failure? It's no good being a "stand-up guy" if the guy you're standing up for players like Anderson.

It recalled Davis and his feckless favorites William Green, Gerard Warren and Quincy Morgan. What love was as blind since that of another Romeo for Juliet?

Not that Anderson wouldn't look good now, because the Browns are down to third-stringer Ken Dorsey. Had Dorsey appeared in that commercial in which Anderson's backup, Brady Quinn, fired sandwiches into a crowd of adoring fans from a parade float outside Cleveland Browns Stadium, there is a good chance the defense would pick off the lunchmeat and some of the more tempting toppings before they ever got to the fans' taste buds.

A year ago, the Browns were playing games in snow and cold, trying to end a surprising season by clinching a playoff spot. The Bengals broke their hearts on the Ohio Riverfront. The Browns weren't really that good, and a tougher schedule proved as much.

The Browns began the season, amid much talk of the playoffs, proving they did not know how to handle success. They end it, amid much talk of whose fault it is, proving they do not know how to handle failure.

It's odd. They have had so much practice at it.

To reach Bill Livingston: blivingston@plaind.com, 216-999-4672