CLEVELAND -- The Cleveland Browns lost the football so many times they lost count.

"How many turnovers did we have?" wide receiver Dennis Northcutt asked a group of reporters after his team's 13-6 loss to the Steelers. "Three? Four?"

"I don't know how many there were," running back James Jackson said.

"Anybody know the number?" offensive tackle Ryan Tucker asked.

The actual figure, barring a recount, was five. Three lost fumbles, two interceptions.

"Man," Tucker said, shaking his head when informed. "You can't beat a high school team with that many turnovers."

Nor an NFL team that had produced only 11 takeaways, tied for second-fewest in the league, before yesterday. The Steelers managed only seven interceptions and four recoveries of opponents' fumbles in their first 10 games, little more than a takeaway per game. Conversely, the Browns ranked 12th among the league's 32 teams in protecting the ball, having given it up only 16 times.

One afternoon upended both of those statistics.

The first turnover, early in the second quarter, was the costliest. Jackson mishandled an apparently clean handoff from quarterback Kelly Holcomb, and Steelers linebacker James Farrior pounced on it at the Cleveland 17. The Steelers turned that into the game's lone touchdown, a 7-6 lead and a momentum swing which never swung back to the Browns.

Jackson lost another fumble in the fourth after he was hit by strong safety Mike Logan. The Steelers recovered at their 26, thwarting the Browns' chance to cut into a 10-6 deficit, then moved into position for a Jeff Reed field goal that made it 13-6 with 8:41 remaining.

Jackson was filling in for starting back William Green, who was suspended four games for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. Jackson had lost only one fumble on 61 carries and has a reputation for being sure-handed. But he expressed strong dissatisfaction with his work yesterday, which also included 94 yards on 25 carries.

"Most definitely," Jackson said when asked if he took responsibility for the loss. "My teammates are telling me to keep my head up, but this game was just about the fumbles."

There was more to it. Jamel White, who was spelling Jackson, lost a second-quarter fumble at the Cleveland 22 to set up a Steelers field goal. And Holcomb threw two interceptions, one with the Browns at the Steelers' 7 in the third quarter and another on the final possession at the Steelers' 39.

Holcomb was most troubled by the first interception, as it marked one of four failed opportunities to produce a touchdown once inside the Steelers' 20. Cleveland's other three trips resulted in two field goals and a turnover on downs at the 1. Worse, 10 of their offensive plays were at the 10 or closer. And, as Holcomb noted, the Steelers hardly had been formidable in red-zone defense, ranking second-to-last in the league by allowing 19 touchdowns on 30 opponents' trips inside the 20.

"It's funny because the red zone is really where Pittsburgh has been struggling, and that's where we lost the game." he said. "When you move it up and down the field, you have to be able to punch it in. You've got to be able to get it in there. We had five turnovers. You can't fumble the ball and throw an interception on the goal line like I did. You just can't have that stuff. They're a good football team."

"We needed one TD. That's all. With all those tries, just one TD," wide receiver Andre Davis said. "That's what we were talking about the whole game, how all we needed was one play. But every time we were down there, something went wrong for us."

Coach Butch Davis divided blame for the loss between the turnovers and red-zone failures.

"I'm very disappointed and angry that we got the ball inside the 20 as many times as we did and didn't put more points on the board," he said. "You're not going to beat a Pittsburgh team -- I don't care what their record is -- unless you score touchdowns. When you get it down there and knock on the door, you have to come away with seven points."

Of the turnovers, he added, "This league is all about turnovers. You turn the ball over that many times ... it's a miracle we were as close as we were."

The perplexing Browns, who have scored 15 or fewer points six times despite capable offensive talent, are in a 1-4 spiral that has dropped their record to 4-7, same as the Steelers. But given the woeful quality of the AFC North Division, they hardly are out of contention, as Davis and his players were emphasizing.

"We have to shake it," Holcomb said. "Until the league tells us we are out of it, we still have to play. We dug ourselves a hole, but we still have to come out playing as hard as we can."