The promotional people with the Browns saw to it to make a big deal when the New York Jets came to FirstEnergy Stadium a month ago.
The teams’ Oct. 30 game turned into a throwback celebratory event woven around the 30-year anniversary of their famous game in the 1986 postseason. You remember that one, don’t you? The Browns rallied from a 10-point deficit, 20-10, with 4:14 left to tie the game at the end of regulation, and they went on to win 23-20 in two overtimes in the AFC divisional playoffs on Jan. 3, 1987 at Cleveland Stadium. It was the Browns’ first postseason victory since 1969.
But what the Browns’ promotional people missed – what they apparently don’t know – is that it’s not a game against the Jets but rather one against New York’s other team, the Giants, that had the biggest influence on all the success enjoyed during the Bernie Kosar era three decades ago.
What jump-started that success – five straight playoff appearances from 1985-89, including four Central Division titles and three appearances in the AFC Championship Game – was a down-to-the-last play 35-33 regular-season win over the Giants on Dec. 1, 1985 at Giants Stadium.
The Giants, with Bill Parcells as their head coach and Bill Belichick as their defensive coordinator, were one of the top teams in the NFC that year, having an 8-4 record entering the day. They were on a roll, too, having won five of their previous six games. They were on their way to finishing 10-6, earning a wild-card berth for the second straight year and, also for the second consecutive time, advancing to the divisional round. This was the same basic team that would win the Super Bowl in 1986, coming very close to meeting the Browns in that game. It would be the first of New York’s two Super Bowl titles within a five-year period.
So, then, this was a great Giants team, one that was favored by six points to beat Cleveland.
As for the Browns, they were on their way to being a very good team, but they weren’t there yet.
In the first full season with Marty Schottenheimer as head coach, the Browns were a whole lot better than they were in 1984, when they staggered to the finish line with a 5-11 record. They were having an up-and-down year in 1985, having won their last two games to improve to 6-6, putting them right into the thick of things in a jumbled division race.
They needed that signature win to get them over the hump and put them onto the right road, and playing the high-profile Giants – in the most high-profile area in the world – would offer the Browns a chance to get that.
And did I mention that the game, which was played as Thanksgiving weekend wrapped up, was on national TV?
In a back-and-forth game that symbolized their season, the Browns bolted to a 21-7 second-quarter lead, then watched as the Giants ran off 26 unanswered points to go ahead 33-21. The Browns rallied themselves to go back on top 35-33 and then withstood a last-gasp comeback effort by New York.
Cleveland survived when Eric Schubert, after his Giants drove into position for him to attempt the game-winner, was wide right on a 34-yard attempt as time expired.
The Browns, now believing they could not only play with, but also beat, the best teams in the NFL, and on the road to boot, got a rush of confidence that day and used it to finish 8-8, good enough to win their first division crown in five years.
But it didn’t stop there, after the 1985 season. The confidence earned that day also launched them to success for four years after that, through 1989. It was the thing that got everything started for the Browns of that era.
How do I know that the win over New York did all that? Because a number of players from that team have said so years later in interviews I conducted with them.
Sunday’s game between the Browns and Giants at FirstEnergy Stadium as Thanksgiving weekend wraps up is a revisit – sort of, kind of – to that 1985 game. The Giants are once again one of the top teams in the NFC, but the Browns are going nowhere at 0-11. They need a win to get the Hue Jackson era jump-started, and beating the Giants would give them not just any ol’ victory, but rather a signature one indeed that would put an exclamation point behind their efforts.
And oh, by the way, the Giants are a 6½-point favorite, almost exactly what they were 31 years ago against the Browns.
Some déjà vu in the making? Or just a meaningless set of coincidences?
We’ll see soon enough.
