Editor’s note: The following, about the AFC divisional playoff contest against the Oakland Raiders on Jan. 4, 1981 at Cleveland Stadium, is the last in a series of 17 stories on the games that made up the Browns’ 1980 Kardiac Kids season. This is the 35th anniversary of that memorable year.
We all know what happened 35 years ago tomorrow, on Jan. 4, 1981, when the Browns lost 14-12 to the Oakland Raiders in the AFC Divisional playoffs at Cleveland Stadium.
Played in brutally-cold conditions – the temperature for the 12:30 p.m. kickoff, near the “heat” of the day, was zero degrees, with a wind-chill factor of minus-37 degrees – the game was lost by the Browns when Brian Sipe’s pass into the end zone for tight end Ozzie Newsome was intercepted by nickel back Mike Davis with 41 seconds remaining.
And we all know what happened 29 years ago today, on Jan. 3, 1987 against the New York Jets in the 1986 AFC Divisional playoffs at Cleveland Stadium, when the Browns erased a 10-point deficit in the final four minutes of regulation to tie the score, then won 23-20 in two overtimes on Mark Moseley’s third field goal of the day, a 27-yarder.
But here’s the thing to remember about those two games as the 2015 Browns, with 3-12 record, get ready to close their season by hosting the Pittsburgh Steelers this afternoon at FirstEnergy Stadium: What is happening now – with all the losing and dysfunction – is so far removed from the tremendous excitement of the 1980 and ’86 seasons that you almost can’t quantify it. They are 180 degrees different from the current mess.
Fans who remember those two seasons, probably the most exciting in Browns history, know what I’m talking about.
We’ll close with this in explaining just how bad it is now: Browns head coach Mike Pettine said the other day that his team’s offense has over-achieved this season. Maybe Pettine, who will be looking for a new job once he gets fired later today, is trying to be a comedian. That has to be the reason, because not even Pettine is ignorant enough to say that a team that goes into today ranked 30th in the 32-team NFL in scoring, has done better than expected offensively.
Oh, sure, I understand what Pettine is doing. He has devoted much more time to the offense this year and, knowing that his job on the line, is trying to make himself look better in the eyes of Jimmy Haslam. But the Browns owner won’t fall for it. He’s witnessed the train wreck that has been this 2015 season.
Haslam doesn’t care about the history of the team, but if he did, he, too, would realize that 2015 has been the polar opposite of those great seasons in 1980 and ’86.
