The Browns will spend Friday — Dec. 1 — on the West Coast, in the country’s second-largest city, Los Angeles, getting ready for a big Sunday road game against the Los Angeles Rams, who won the Super Bowl two seasons ago.

It was exactly 38 years ago, on Dec. 1, 1985, that the Browns were on the East Coast, on the outskirts of the country’s largest city, New York, playing a big Sunday road game against the New York Giants, who would win the Super Bowl the following season.

The Browns rallied from behind to win that wildly-exciting game 35-33, holding on for dear life at the end as the Giants’ game-winning field-goal attempt went wide right as time expired.

It was the victory that, without any question, propelled the Browns’ great run through the last half of the 1980s, during which they made the playoffs five straight years from 1985-89 (their first postseason appearances since 1980), winning four Central Division titles and making it to the AFC Championship Game three times.

After finishing just 5-11 in 1984, as an awful start caused head coach Sam Rutigliano to get fired halfway through (the Browns had been picked before the season to win the division), the team was looking to get back on track. That effort was working pretty well under new coach Marty Schottenheimer, as the Browns, stocked with a bunch of young, talented players, hovered right around the .500 record. But they needed a signature win, one that would validate them as a team on the rise. And they got it by defeating the Giants, who, under a young head coach named Bill Parcells and a heady defensive coordinator named Bill Belichick, had already established themselves as a team with which to be reckoned. What also helped — incredibly so, in terms of building a confidence and a belief — was the dramatic way in which it took place.

With aging veteran quarterback Gary Danielson, in his first year in Cleveland folllwing an offseason trade with the Detroit Lions, valiantly leading the way (he had an injured right arm and could barely throw), taking over for rookie Beanie Kosar, the Browns built a 21-7 lead. The Giants then stormed back with 26 unanswered points to go ahead 33-21.

The Browns responded with two straight touchdowns of their own to grab the lead back 35-33, and, following the miss, it proved to be good enough for the victory.

Now it’s 2023 and the young, talented Browns, after a disappointing loss last Sunday at Denver, are 7-4 and looking to get on a on a late-season run that would net them their first postseason appearance since 2020. It serms as of this writing that they will attempt to do so with aging veteran quarterback Joe Flacco, who was signed only recently as rookie starter Dorian Thompson-Robinson tries to work his way through concussion protocol.

Hopefully, Flacco and the Browns can rekindle some of that 1985 big-game magic.

Steve King