ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — Kicker Phil Dawson doesn’t want to discuss his solid start to the season. He’s been through the weather horrors of late-November and December and refuses to get ahead of himself.
“You have to kick well early if you’re the kicker in Cleveland because it only gets tougher,” Dawson said last week. “I’m off to a good start but it really doesn’t matter. I still have seven games to go and the challenge is only going to get greater every week.
“At the end of the year I’ll talk about how I kicked this year.”
Dawson was asked about his season because it’s been one to remember. After Monday’s 29-27 victory over the Buffalo Bills, he is 22-for-24 on field goals and 17-for-17 on extra points. He kicked a pair of field goals in the first quarter — from 40 and 33 yards — a 43-yarder in the third and a 22-yarder and the game-winning 56-yarder in the fourth, to give him 204 for his career.
Dawson’s two misses this season came from 51 (wide left against the Giants) and 54 yards (wide right against the Redskins), meaning he hasn’t missed a kick inside 50 yards since a 25-yarder was blocked in the finale last year. Before that, it was a year ago today, when he missed a 35-yarder wide right.
“If we were to line up and have to kick a game-winning field goal, there’s no one I would rather have than Phil Dawson,” special teams coach Ted Daisher said. “He is a great leader, a good person, he is talented and he works meticulously at his job. He is one of the top kickers in the league.”
Through nine games, Dawson was having a season worthy of Pro Bowl consideration, but that doesn’t mean he’ll earn his first trip to Honolulu. Spots at fringe positions often go to players on winning teams, and the Browns (at 4-6 after Monday’s victory) don’t qualify.
Dawson, 33 and the only player remaining from the 1999 expansion season, is getting better with age. He has his highest field-goal percentage since he went 27-for-29 (.931) in 2005.
And his right leg appears stronger than ever, sending kickoffs into the end zone and going 3-for-5 on field goals from 50 yards and beyond — a then-career high 54-yarder Nov. 2, a 52-yarder Nov. 6 and the 56-yarder Monday night. Early in his career, he was rarely allowed to try from that distance.
“He works very hard at lifting, running and conditioning,” Daisher said. “I think his leg is stronger this year than it was last year. I really do.
“He is hitting the ball very well.”
Dawson sits third on the team’s career list. Don Cockroft is second with 216 and Lou Groza leads with 234. Dawson is the NFL’s fifth-most accurate kicker of all time, making 83.3 percent.
Three hours before the game Monday night, he was the lone player on the field in an empty Ralph Wilson Stadium. He went through his routine without a ball, visualizing his kicks and observing the wind.

McDonald benched, sort of

Cornerback Brandon McDonald was replaced in the starting lineup Monday night by Travis Daniels. But after Kamerion Wimbley’s interception on the first play of the game, McDonald returned for the second possession and remained in the game. McDonald added an interception — his second of the year — later in the first quarter, and forced a fumble in the third.
Coach Romeo Crennel said Friday he hadn’t decided on a starter, because McDonald had allowed three touchdown passes in back-to-back games and was struggling with his confidence.
Daniels, acquired Aug. 20 from Miami for a seventh-round draft choice in 2009, made his first start with the Browns.

Rotation station

Crennel was true to his word, using rotations at safety, inside linebacker and outside linebacker.
Mike Adams joined starters Sean Jones and Brodney Pool at safety. Leon Williams rotated with Andra Davis at inside linebacker, alongside D’Qwell Jackson. And outside linebacker Shantee Orr joined a rotation with Willie McGinest, Kamerion Wimbley and Alex Hall.
Jones left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury and didn’t return.

Valuable resource

Jim Brown, a Hall of Fame running back and team adviser, meets with the captains on a regular basis.
“Jim has played in this league for a long time and he’s got some insights about leadership,” Crennel said. “He spoke to the guys about leadership and what it takes to be a leader.”
Do today’s players understand what Brown meant to the Browns and the NFL?
“No, not really,” Crennel said. “The kids today, they’re kids and they’ve grown up in a different era and so their perspective is a different perspective.
“He’s one of the greatest players in NFL history and what he was able to accomplish in his time as a player here in Cleveland was tremendous. I don’t know that anybody else can do what he did the way he did it under the circumstances that he had to operate.”

Game day

Members of the Browns will do battle today in “Call of Duty 5” against members from the Ohio National Guard as part of “The Pros vs. GI Joes” tour.
Special teamer Joshua Cribbs, safety Brodney Pool, tight end Kellen Winslow and fullback Charles Ali will be at team headquarters in Berea, while the soldiers will be in Kuwait. The videogame was picked by the troops, members of the 237th Brigade Support Battalion who are stationed in Kuwait. Family members of the participating soldiers will be in Berea to watch and talk to the soldiers on a webcam from the team meeting room.

Inactives

Fullback Lawrence Vickers (ankle) was the only Browns starter to miss the game. He was replaced for the third straight game by Ali.
The healthy inactives were: special teamer Gerard Lawson, safety Hamza Abdullah, linebacker Beau Bell, offensive lineman Scott Young, receiver Steve Sanders, tight end Martin Rucker and third quarterback Ken Dorsey.
• For the Bills, defensive end Aaron Schobel (foot) and receiver Josh Reed (ankle) didn’t dress.
Safety Donte Whitner, from Glenville High School and Ohio State, returned from a shoulder injury and started.

Extra points

Cribbs, nose tackle Shaun Rogers and cornerback Eric Wright will sign autographs tonight from 5-8 at the team shop at Cleveland Browns Stadium.
• Linebacker D’Qwell Jackson joined the blogosphere, posting his first blog at Yardbarker.com last week. He went into the locker room in the second quarter for
X-rays on his elbow and wrist, but returned to the game.
• Defensive end Shaun Smith left the game with a calf injury and didn’t return.
• Keyshawn Johnson was the only one of eight ESPN experts to pick the Browns to win.
Contact Scott Petrak at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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