BACK-TO-BACK BROWNS SEASONS THAT STAND IN INFAMY
By STEVE KING
We all – anybody and everybody – thought that, based upon the great finish of last season, the Browns this year would pick up that momentum and carry it through to a great finish.
It hasn’t quite worked out the way – not at all. It’s been a disaster.
Understanding that, then, and following along with the premise that misery loves company, here is a list of other times – other back-to-back seasons – in Browns history that have gone similarly:
*1976-77 – After going just 7-21 the previous two years, the 1976 Browns finished 9-5, earning head coach Forrest Gregg the AFC Coach of the Year award. In fact, they stayed in the playoff hunt until the final weekend of the season. With that, even bigger things were expected in 1977, and for the first half of the 14-game schedule, it sure looked like it was going to happen. The Browns were 5-2 and had won three straight, the last of which was a 44-7 decision over the Kansas City Chiefs in which they scored their most points in a game in nine years. The lopsided nature of the margin of victory cost Chiefs head coach – and Browns Legend defensive end — Paul Wiggin his job. Then came six losses, five of which were by a combined 21 points, in their final seven games, resulting in a 6-8 finish that, with one game remaining, cost Gregg his job.
*1980-81 – Sam Rutigliano, who had taken over for Gregg, got the Browns on track – and then some — in three years, his 1980 team going 11-5, winning the AFC Central championship for the first time in nine seasons and making the playoffs for the first time in eight years. The Browns let a divisional playoff game against the Oakland Raiders get away with a “Red Right 88”-inspired loss, but by 1981, the Browns and their fans were full of vim and vigor again, expecting an even greater season, and a much, much greater finish. The Browns never really got on track consistently, losing two to start the year, winning two, losing two and then winning two. Still, they were 4-4 at the midway point, which inspired hope. But, in their final eight games, they lost seven, three of which came by a combined total of eight points. The result was a 5-11 record, a full and complete reversal from that 11-5 mark the previous year. Quarterback Brian Sipe, whose career was rejuvenated by Rutigliano, mirrored the Browns’ drop-off, throwing for just 17 touchdown passes with 25 interceptions after having passed for a club-record 30 scores with 14 picks in 1980 when he became the first Brown to win the NFL Most Valuable Player award in 15 years. He is still the last one to have earned it, by the way.
To be continued in my next post.
