The Bernie Kosar Era - Browns Daily Dose

The Bernie Kosar Era – Giant(s) wins over Steelers, Bengals and Oilers

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 13th in a series of stories about the Mount Rushmore-worthy people, places and things in Browns history. Today we look at the Bernie Kosar era regular-season games from 1985-89.

By STEVE KING

The Bernie Kosar era.

For a lot of the present-day, modern-day Browns fans, that is the era they remember with the most fondness.

And there’s a good reason – or, shall we say, good reasons — for that.

First and foremost, the Browns won – a lot – for five years straight, making the playoffs five straight times, winning four Central Division titles and getting to the AFC Championship Game on three occasions, including in 1986 and ’87 when they got so close to making the franchise’s first trip to the Super Bowl that you could almost taste it, touch it, smell it, see it.

Then, of course, the era was led by a then young quarterback in Kosar, a Northeast Ohio native who grew up in the Youngstown suburb of Boardman Township rooting for the Browns and idolizing the triggerman of the Kardiac Kids, quarterback Brian Sipe. From the moment he joined the team 35 years ago, in June 1985, he was really likeable, really popular and really good.

And he was surrounded by a lot of great players who were also easy to like.

Indeed, then, other than missing out on going to the Super Bowl, it was the perfect storm for the Browns and their fans.

There were so many great games. Here are the ones great enough to be on the Mount Rushmore of Browns regular-season games from 1985-89:

BROWNS 35, NEW YORK GIANTS 33 – DEC. 1, 1985 – at NEW YORK – This is the day that the Bernie Kosar era began in earnest. No era in sports can begin, and be sustained, without success – victories – and the Browns got a big win here in dramatic fashion that jumpstarted them to so many good things. That’s despite the fact that Kosar, a rookie who bounced in and out of the starting lineup for a good portion of the year with veteran Gary Danielson, had little to do with it. With two straight wins following a string of four losses, the Browns, at 6-6, were hanging in there in a tight, though mediocre, AFC Central race. The 8-4 Giants were building on a 1984 season in which they got back on track after years of mostly struggling and made the playoffs under head coach Bill Parcells, who had a young defensive coordinator by the name of Bill Belichick. They would win the Super Bowl the following season. The young, developing Browns needed a signature win, something on which they could hang their hats, and beating the Giants on the road – at Giants Stadium — would give them that. That it also occurred in a heart-stopping way only added to the value of the win. The underdog Browns got off to a rousing start, building a 21-7 second-quarter lead on the strength of their rushing attack – a 42-yard touchdown run by Kevin Mack and a two-yard scoring run by Earnest Byner – and their stout defense – a 37-yard interception return for a TD by safety Al Gross. But the Giants came roaring back to score 26 unanswered points to take a 33-21 advantage in the fourth quarter. Kosar started but struggled, giving way to Danielson, whose arm problems made it hard for him to throw. But Danielson courageously gutted his way through it and led the Browns to two TDs, the first coming on his 25-yard pass to wide receiver Clarence Weathers and the second on Byner’s nine-yard run, to retake the lead, 35-33. The Giants got the ball back with one last chance to win but missed a makeable field goal on the game’s final play. The Browns raced out onto the field afterward as if they had just won the Super Bowl. They didn’t, but they had taken the first step toward being a legitimate contender to do that someday soon. They ended 8-8, but it was good enough to capture the division title. They blew a 21-3 third-quarter lead in the divisional playoffs and lost 24-21 to the Miami Dolphins, who ended up going to the Super Bowl.

BROWNS 27, PITTSBURGH STEELERS 24 – OCT. 5, 1986 – AT PITTSBURGH – If the Browns wanted to become the dominant team in the Central, then they had to beat the Steelers at Three Rivers Stadium, something they had not done in 16 tries. They got the win – breaking the so-called “Three River Jinx” – but it was not easy. They needed help from all three parts of the club – offense, defense and special teams. The Browns got off to a good start, building a 10-0 first-quarter lead on Bernie Kosar’s 15-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Webster Slaughter and former Steeler Matt Bahr’s 22-yard field goal. Pittsburgh rallied to go on top 14-10, but, following the second TD, Gerald “Ice Cube” McNeil returned the ensuing kickoff 100 yards for a score and a 17-14 Cleveland advantage at halftime. Bahr’s 39-yard field goal provided the only points for the Browns as Pittsburgh gained a 24-20 fourth-quarter lead. Earnest Byner’s four-yard TD run put the Browns back on top, 27-24, and then they stopped the Steelers on a drive into Cleveland territory in the game’s waning moments when they made a fumble recovery after linebacker Clay Matthews stripped the ball from quarterback Mark Malone. After more than a decade and a half, the Browns finally had a win at Three Rivers, and Cleveland and Northeast Ohio heaved a collective sigh of relief.

BROWNS 34, CINCINNATI BENGALS 3 – DEC. 14, 1986 – AT CINCINNATI – Six years earlier, in 1980, the Browns went to Cincinnati in the regular-season finale with a chance to capture the Central title with a victory, and they got it in a game that went down to the last play. This time, they went to Cincinnati in the next-to-last game of the season with the opportunity to clinch the division championship with a win, and they got it in a contest that was over in the third quarter. Bernie Kosar threw a 66-yard pass to wide receiver Reggie Langhorne to the Cinicinnati 1 on the second play of the game, and when Kevin Mack scored on the following play, the Browns were off and rolling to one of their most impressive overall performances in franchise history. They completely dominated a Bengals team that, at 9-5, trailed the 10-4 Browns by a game and had beaten them up to the tune of 30-13 three months earlier at Cleveland in the teams’ first meeting. The lead went to 14-3 later in the first quarter on Kosar’s 47-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Webster Slaughter, and then to 17-3 at halftime on a 39-yard field goal by Mark Moseley, who was signed after Matt Bahr broke his leg three weeks earlier. Two more TDs in the third quarter – on another one-yard run by Mack and Slaughter’s fumble recovery in the end zone – made it 31-3 and put the game away for good. Mosely added a finishing touch to the victory in the fourth quarter with a 19-yard field goal. The Bengals had scored no fewer than 24 points in their previous six games, and rolled up 52 the following week in a romp over the New York Jets, but they could manage only a first-quarter field goal against the Browns, who won their second consecutive division title.

BROWNS 28, HOUSTON OILERS 23 – DEC. 18, 1988 – AT CLEVELAND – The 1988 season was supposed to be the one in which the Browns, who had lost the AFC Championship Game to the Denver Broncos in excruciating fashion the previous two years, were finally going to get to the Super Bowl. They were the choice of many experts to do so. But historic injury problems at quarterback, the most important position again in team sports, really put a damper on that. The Browns had lost their starting quarterback to injury four different times, and so they entered this win-or-go-home regular-season finale with 38-year-old Don Strock as their starter. He had been coaxed out of retirement and signed while coming off a golf course. Could he shake off the rust and lead the Browns to victory, which would allow them to finish 10-6 and get into the playoffs as a wild card, extending their streak of consecutive postseason appearances to four? If the Browns won, then they would return to Cleveland Stadium six days later, on Christmas Eve, and face the Oilers again in a rematch. That’s exactly what happened, but not in a way that anyone could have ever imagined. Their offense non-existent, the Browns fell behind 16-7 at halftime, their only points coming on rookie defensive tackle Michael Dean Perry’s 10-yard fumble return for a touchdown. But the advantage quickly went to 23-7 in the third quarter and the Oilers, with a high-powered offense led by Warren Moon and already owning a 24-17 victory over the Browns at the Astrodome a month and a half earlier in the teams’ first meeting, seemed ready to pour it on and beat their division rivals again, this time much more decisively. The Stadium was lifeless, sensing impending doom for the Browns, who seemed lifeless – and defeated – as well. The fact that a light snow was starting to fall only added to the gloom. But little did anyone realize that Strock and the Browns offense were ready to come alive and put on a great show in one of the most impressive comebacks in team history. It started when Strock threw a two-yard TD pass to running back Earnest Byner to cut the deficit to 23-14 by the end of the third quarter. With the defense suddenly stifling the Oilers, the Browns really got rolling offensively in the fourth quarter with two TDs, the first on Byner’s two-yard run and the game-winner on Strock’s 22-yard pass to wide receiver Webster Slaughter amidst the snowflakes. Rebounding from his early struggles in which he was intercepted three times, Strock finished 25-of-42 passing for 326 yards and the two TDs. The Oilers had no answer for Slaughter, who caught six passes for 136 yards. It was unbelievable, and incredible. This Browns team was so good overall that it was able to overcome the worst quarterback injury problem in franchise history to go 10-6 and make the playoffs.

NEXT: Regular-season games from 1990-95.

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