Almost everyone in Northeast Ohio and beyond was holding their breath as the clock wound down in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game between the Browns and San Francisco 49ers at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

The Browns had the lead, but it wasn’t very much it just 19-17, as the 49ers marched into Browns territory, and then into field-goal range. It looked l like the Browns‘ valiant effort against the undefeated 49ers was going to be for naut, and that the 49ers would win.

And then there were some people with a little gray in their hair who were smiling, not sweating at all. They knew the history of the east end of the field, whether it be ay Cleveland, Browns Stadium or its predecessor, Cleveland Stadium, which sat on the exact footprint of the new place. Cleveland has always been the hardest place in the NFL to kick, and the of the east end of the stadium, where the Dawg Pound is located, is the tougher end by far.

There was a game in 1989 against the Kansas City Chiefs in Marty Schottenheimer’s first trip back to Cleveland after being fired. The Chiefs’ Nick Lowery was the best kicker in the league at the time, but he missed and missed and missed again at that end, and by the time the day was done, he was so frustrated that he probably couldn’t have made a high school team.

When Matt Barr got to the Browns, he talked about being a rookie in 1979 with the Pittsburgh Steelers and having a kick at the east end of the old stadium. The wind was coming in off Lake Erie and swirling inside the stadium, and the uprights of the goal post were swinging back-and-forth like hula dancers. He tried to drive the ball in accordance with the wind, and then the wind immediately shifted as soon as he kicked the ball and his attempt sailed just a foot outside the upright.

So, there is history at that end iof the field, and that history continued Sunday when Jake Moody missed a kick to the right, preserving the Browns’ tremendous upset win over the 49ers.

It won’t be the last time that a kick at that end of the stadium hies awry, but this one was certainly important, for it breathed life into a Browns team that was really dragging in coming off their bye after a 28-3 blowout loss to the Baltimore Ravens at Cleveland.

The Browns are 3-2 and right in the thick of the AFC North race. If you’re a Browns fan, you can’t kick about that.

Steve King