Kardiac Kids 1980 Season

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 12th in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy people, places and things in Browns history. Today we look at regular-season games from 1980-84.

By STEVE KING

OK, I know what you’re asking, thinking.

“Why one-half of a decade in this set of games instead of a full decade?”

Good thought. Good question. It deserves a good answer, and I think I have one.

It is that, in Browns history, the first half of the 1980s is totally different from the last half of the decade.

The first half of the 1980s was the Kardiac Kids era, while the second half was the Bernie Kosar era. Two different groups of players. Two different head coaches and coaching staffs. Two different stories – fun, memorable, exciting, productive, both of them, but certainly different.

So, then, to mix the half-decades together would have done nothing other than to create a mess, and it would not have done justice to either era.

Let’s take a look at the Mount Rushmore of Browns regular-season games from 1980-84, which belonged to the Kardiac Kids (Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but they’re all from the Kardiac Kids 1980 season!):

BROWNS 26, GREEN BAY PACKERS 21 – OCT. 19, 1980 – AT CLEVELAND –

After a disastrous start in which they dropped their first two games and their high-octane offense sputtered, the Browns had won three of their last four to climb to 3-3 as they prepared to host a mediocre Green Bay team that had a 2-3-1 record and a bad offense. The Browns did what they should have done – what they were expected to do – as they built a 13-0 lead by early in the third quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by Mike Pruitt and two Don Cockroft field goals of 40 and 42 yards. But these were the Kardiac Kids, and no matter how far they got ahead or how far they fell behind, you just knew that the game was going to end up being close. That’s the only way they seemed to know how to play. And so it was again this time, as they took their foot off the gas pedal and allowed Green Bay to score three unanswered touchdowns to go ahead 21-13 in the fourth quarter. These were the days before the NFL had adopted the two-point conversion rule, so the eight-point deficit meant the Browns had to score twice to win. And they did. Quarterback Brian Sipe, who was on his way to winning the NFL Most Valuable Player award, cut the lead to 21-20 when he threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Ozzie Newsome. The Browns got the ball back and won it with 16 seconds left when Sipe lofted a jump ball-type of TD pass to rangy wide receiver Dave Logan, who went up over the defender to get it and raced into the end zone to complete the 46-yard play and get the much-needed victory. With the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers coming to Cleveland Stadium the following week, the Browns could ill afford have lost to the Packers. Sipe threw for nearly 400 yards – 391 – and the two TDs on 24-of-39 passing. As he did all that season, he spread the ball around evenly, making it tough for opponents to defend the Browns. Pruitt had six catches for 61 yards, while with five receptions each were running back Calvin Hill (for 94 yards), wide receiver Reggie Rucker (81) and Newsome (60).  Safety Thom Darden, a Sandusky High School product, and linebackers Charlie Hall and Robert L. Jackson each had an interception off Lynn Dickey.  

BROWNS 27, PITTSBURGH STEELEERS 26 – OCT. 26, 1980 – AT CLEVELAND –

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It was a battle of 4-3 teams that both needed to win to keep pace in the AFC Central with the Houston Oilers, but along with that, this was a statement game for the Browns. If they wanted to get to where they wanted to go, then they had to knock out the champions at Cleveland, something they had not done since 1976. And for a while, it certainly did not appear as if they would do it. They trailed 20-7 in the third quarter, their only score coming on Brian Sipe’s five-yard touchdown pass to Calvin Hill in the second quarter. The teams traded TDs for the rest of the third quarter, the Browns’ coming on Sipe’s six-yard pass to another running back, Greg Pruitt. That the Browns trailed the team with one of the defenses in the NFL by 26-14 entering the fourth quarter did not dissuade them. In fact, it was in these situation that Sipe and his guys thrived, and they proved it again as he threw two more TD passes – a six-yarder to Pruitt and a 19-yardfer to tight end Ozzie Newsome – to give him four for the day, along with 349 yards passes, as the Browns captured the important victory. Wide receiver Dave Logan had eight receptions (for 125 yards), as did Pruitt (71 yards).

BROWNS 17, HOUSTON OILERS 14 — NOV. 30, 1980 – AT HOUSTON –

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To be sure, the Kardiac Kids 1980 season featured a lot of offense, but this was a game won by defense, and in particular wily veteran safety Clarence Scott. He guessed right with a minute left and stepped in front of tight end Dave Casper to intercept a Ken Stabler pass and preserve this victory and allow the Browns to improve to 9-4 and wrest sole possession of first place from the Oilers (8-5) with three games left. The Oilers had triumphed 16-7 in Cleveland in the teams’ first meeting, so the win by the Browns at the Astrodome meant that, should the teams finish the regular season deadlocked for first place, Cleveland would not lose the division title based on the first tie-breaker, head-to-head meetings. The Browns played very well to start the game, going ahead 17-7 in the third quarter on two touchdown runs of one yard and six yards by Cleo Miller and Don Cockroft’s 25-yard field goal. The Oilers battled back to within 17-14 later in the quarter on Stabler’s 30-yard TD pass to Casper. Casper was Stabler’s favorite target all day, as evidenced by his seven receptions (out of the quarterback’s 17 completions) for 150 yards. So, late in the game when the Oilers got the ball back with one last chance to tie it or win it, and then began moving down the field, Scott kept his eye on Casper and made the interception. It was a huge personal moment for Scott. When head coach Sam Rutigliano in 1979 moved him from cornerback, where he had starred for eight seasons, to the back end of the defense, something that no corner ever wants to have happen to him, Scott showed why he was a pro’s pro and never complained. Instead, he worked hard to be the best he could be at safety, and it paid off in the biggest moment of one of the biggest games of the year.      

BROWNS 27, CINCINNATI BENGALS 24 – DEC. 21, 1980 – AT CINCINNATI

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The week before, the Browns lost the opportunity to clinch a playoff spot when they failed to hold a 23-9 fourth-quarter lead at Minnesota and suffered a crushing 28-23 defeat to the Vikings on a Hail Mary touchdown pass on the game’s final play. So, in the regular-season finale, it was either beat the Bengals at Riverfront Stadium and win their first AFC Central crown in nine years, or lose the game and the playoffs with it. They could not get in as a wild card. In the rollicking, roller-coaster-ride of the Kardiac Kids 1980 season, it seemed fitting that it came down to an all-or-nothing scenario for the Kardiac Kids. Adding to the pressure – immensely so – for the Browns were these factors: Art Modell had fired both Bengals head coach Forrest Gregg and Bengals owner Paul Brown as head coaches in Cleveland, so they wanted nothing more than to stick it to the Browns owner by beating his team and denying it a spot in the offseason. From the Cincinnati players’ respective, they were still smarting from the 31-7 whipping administered them by the Browns at Cleveland a month earlier in the teams’ first meeting. The Bengals had improved greatly from that game, winning three in a row to get to 6-9. A fourth victory and 7-9 finish would do much to send them into the offseason with a lot of momentum and good vibes. The game began as if the Bengals would get their wish, as they led 10-0 in the second quarter. The Browns offense finally got untracked and tied it 10-10 at halftime on Brian Sipe’s 42-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Rucker and Don Cockroft’s 26-yard field goal. Cornerback Ray Griffin, an Ohio State product and the younger brother of two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin, who was still with the Bengals then, opened the third quarter by stepping in front of a Sipe pass and returning it 52 yards for a touchdown to put Cincinnati ahead 17-10. The Browns were stymied. The Bengals weren’t going way. Trailing again, Cleveland needed something – a big play, or two – to get over the hump and swing the momentum in its favor. It came from an unlikely source, little-used wide receiver Ricky Feacher, who entered the game early after Dave Logan left with an injury sustained while being tackled following a 65-yard reception. Sipe hit Feacher with two TD passes four minutes apart in the third quarter on almost identical fly routes on both sides of the field, a 35-yarder down the right sideline and then a 34-yarder down the left hash marks, to give the Browns a 24-17 lead. It was the boost they leaded, as they never fell behind again. Cincinnati did rally to tie the score on a fourth-quarter TD, but Don Cockroft kicked the game-winning 22-yard field goal with 2:25 left and then the Browns stopped the Bengals from scoring on the final drive, the contest ending when wide receiver Steve Kreider was tackled by cornerback Ron Bolton at the Cleveland 14 in the final seconds after catching a 22-yard pass. The Bengals raced down the field to run another play, but they couldn’t get there in time as the clock ran out. With the victory, the Browns and Houston Oilers finished tied for first place at 11-5, but Cleveland earned the division title based on the tie-breaker of having a better record within the conference.

NEXT: Regular-season games from 1985-89.