It’s doubtful that the Browns and Detroit Lions, who play on Sunday at Ford Field, will meet again this season in the Super Bowl.
Neither team has ever been to the Super Bowl, and while the Lions could finally do it this season with the team they’ve put together, the rebuilding Browns have virtually no chance to get there. Let’s hope it happens sooner rather than later for the Browns, but it won’t be this year because they are simply not good enough.
But there was a time — long, long ago, 70 years, in fact — when the Browns and Lions ruled the NFL and their meetings caught the attention of everyone.
Upon coming into the league from the All-America Football Conference in 1950, the Browns made six straight NFL Championship Game appearances,
and seven in eight years.
The Browns defeated the Los Angeles Rams for the title in 1950 (30-28) and ‘55 (38-14) and lost to them 24-17 in 1951. The rest of the championship games — four in all, including three in a row — were against Detroit. The Browns were just 1-3 in those contests, losing 17-7 in 1952 as the Lions built a 14-0 third-quarter lead and held on from there, and then again in 1953, 17-16, on Bobby Layne’s late 33-yard touchdown pass to Jim Doran.
Were the Browns frustrated at this point? You bet. As a result, on the night before the teams played again for the title in 1954, the Cleveland players met secretly in their hotel to discuss their thoughts. They came to the conclusion that head coach Paul Brown had been too conservative in his approach, esiecially with his offensive play-calling, in the previous two title games. It was a complaint of two other Browns, running back Jim Brown and defensive tackle Bob Gain, some years later.
Anyway, the players in 1954 decided that quarterback Otto Graham would change the play as it came in through Brown’s messenger guard if he thought he had a better call. They knew they were risking being on the receiving end of Brown’s scorn, but they thought it was necessary. If the plays worked, then Brown likely would not say anything. But if they did not work, then they would be in big trouble.
The plan worked like a charm. Graham got the Browns offense into a lot of good plays and it led to a rousing 56–10 victory. He was the biggest beneficiary of the move, as he passed for three touchdowns and ran for three more. Having a hand in six touchdowns made it arguably the greatest performance in NFL playoff history. The Browns bolted to a 35-10 halftime lead and never looked back.
In 1957, in the teams’ last NFL Championship Game meeting, Detroit extracted its revenge with a 59-14 win in Brown’s last postseason game while with Cleveland. He had several more when he became head coach of the Cincinnati Bengals a decade later.
Steve King
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