Browns Making Enemies of Carson’s Old Friends

CLEVELAND —  If Bud Carson could play his former teams every week, the Cleveland Browns might never lose.

Carson, new head coach of the Browns, made it two in a row against former employers Sunday when Cleveland had four interceptions and scored its fourth defensive touchdown of the season in a 38-24 victory over the New York Jets.

“We know the last two ballgames were very important to Bud,” said Michael Dean Perry, who had one of the Browns’ three sacks. “He spent a lot of his career at Pittsburgh, and he spent the last four or five years in New York. It was a very important game emotionally for Bud.”

The Browns routed the Pittsburgh Steelers, 51-0, last Sunday.

Carson was the Jets’ defensive coordinator the past four years and the Steelers’ defensive coordinator in the 1970s.

Thane Gash returned an interception 36 yards for his first career touchdown, and Bernie Kosar threw three scoring passes for the Browns (2-0) after getting off to a slow start.

The Jets (0-2) batted down five of Kosar’s passes at the line of scrimmage in the first half.

Kosar finished with 15 completions in 30 attempts for 196 yards and didn’t throw an interception.

New York’s Ken O’Brien had his 24 of 43 performance for 270 yards, ruined by a career-high four interceptions.

The Jets tied it, 14-14, on O’Brien’s 49-yard pass play to JoJo Townsell early in the third quarter, but a 30-yard pass interference on New York’s Michael Mitchell set up Kosar’s six-yard touchdown pass to Tim Manoa on the Browns’ next possession that put the Browns ahead to stay.