If you’re a longtime Browns fan, then you have to be excited about Al Saunders being hired as senior offensive assistant on new head coach Hue Jackson’s staff.
It’s the hire that isn’t getting nearly enough play. It is huge.
Generated by IJG JPEG Library
Saunders has done a lot of good things in the NFL for a lot of years as an offensive coach, which is great news considering the Browns have been so bad offensively for so long. And it was way back in 1987 when Browns fans got a good look at Saunders and what he could do.
The Browns were 4-2 and on their way to making it to the AFC Championship Game for the second straight time when they played in San Diego on Nov. 1. The Chargers were past their off-the-charts Air Coryell years, but Saunders, in his first full season as head coach, had revitalized them and had them at 5-1 and with a five-game winning streak.
The Browns were expected to be where they were at. The Chargers weren’t. The teams had played a little over 10 months before in Cleveland in the 1986 regular-season finale and the Browns had their way in a 47-17 win, scoring their most points since 1968. Saunders had taken over in midway through that season when Coryell resigned and was still getting himself acclimated then. But he had things in place by the time of the rematch in 1987, and it really showed.
The Chargers had no business winning, but they did so anyway, 27-24 in overtime after erasing a 10-point deficit entering the fourth quarter to tie the game.
The 414 total yards the Chargers amassed that day were the third-most the talented Cleveland defense gave up all year. The 286 passing yards by San Diego were also the third-most given up by Cleveland that season, as were the 128 rushing yards.
The Chargers won two more games after beating the Browns to get to 8-1, but then ran out of steam to lose their last six in an 8-7 finish in that strike-shortened year. San Diego never really got going in 1988 and ended just 6-10, causing Saunders to get fired. His first – and still his only – head-coaching job at any level was over.
So Saunders went back to being a very good offensive assistant coach over the next 27 years, bringing him to this new job in Cleveland.
If Saunders, now 69 years old but still sharp as a tack, can give to the Browns offensively what he hit them with on that day way back in 1987, then his presence will be a great benefit.
By Steve King
