CLEVELAND (AP) -- With a last-minute drive so sickeningly familiar to Browns fans, Akili Smith extracted his revenge and got a rivalry going again.

Smith finished his first NFL start by leading the Cincinnati Bengals 80 yards in the closing minutes and throwing a 2-yard touchdown pass to Carl Pickens for an 18-17 victory over winless Cleveland.

	Carl Pickens came through in the clutch for the Bengals, catching a TD pass to give Cincinnati its first win.

Making good on his promise to prove something to the team that passed him by in the draft, Smith raised his arms in celebration after his lob to Pickens with 5 seconds left, then pounded his chest in a gesture to the Browns bench.

He felt they'd slighted him by choosing Tim Couch instead of him on draft day.

"It was real personal," said Smith, who completed 25-of-41 for 221 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. "The fans were cheering like it was the Super Bowl, and that's how I took it. This game was very big for me. I wanted to show them they made a mistake."

The Browns (0-5) have never made it to a Super Bowl, losing out on their best chance when John Elway led Denver 98 yards on "The Drive" toward the Dawg Pound to save the AFC championship in 1986.

Playing in a new stadium on the same site with the Dawg Pound at his back, Smith put together his own version of "The Drive" with training wheels.

"For a young quarterback in his first NFL start to go 80 yards to score with 5 seconds left was more than anyone should expect," said Bengals general manager Mike Brown, who chose Smith with the third overall pick.

Couch completed 15-of-27 for 164 yards with one interception, but led the offense to only one first down in the second half when Cleveland had a chance to put it away.

Cincinnati (1-4) got the ball back at its 20 with 2:04 left and the 73,048 fans ready to celebrate Cleveland's first win since it beat the Bengals in 1995 in the last game at old Cleveland Stadium.

When Smith ran onto the field, he gestured to the Dawg Pound to keep up the din and the obscenities directed his way.

"He loved that," offensive tackle Willie Anderson said. "He was like, 'Bring it on.' We were just saying, 'Hey, chill out man. If we can't hear you (during the snap count), we can't block for you.'"

No problem there. Smith completed his first four passes in the drive for 49 yards, including a 9-yard throw to Darnay Scott on fourth-and-four.

A pass interference penalty on Corey Fuller put the ball at the 2 with 21 seconds left and the Bengals out of timeouts. After two incompletions, Smith made the final, decisive lob to Pickens, then miffed the Browns with his chest-thumping celebration.

"It definitely angered me," Couch said. "I will definitely remember it. It was like he was taunting our crowd, saying we should have picked him over me."

Operating out of a low-risk offense that emphasized the short pass and handoffs to Corey Dillon, Smith occasionally held the ball too long -- he was sacked five times -- but made no glaring mistakes. Dillon did most of the damage, piling up 168 yards on 28 carries.

Until the end, the Browns were in position to get their first win as an expansion team because their kickers were overshadowing the quarterback matchup.

Phil Dawson put Cleveland ahead with a 4-yard touchdown run off a fake field goal, forced a fumble that set up another score and added a fourth-quarter field goal for a 17-12 lead.

It was as close as the Browns have come to a win all season, but it was still a few seconds short.

"I thought we played well," coach Chris Palmer said. "For 59 minutes and 55 seconds, we played well enough to win. All we needed was one play, and they made that play."