by Heading into the 1986 season, the Cleveland Browns had found their franchise quarterback, and it was time to put the final touches on the team and make a serious run at the championship. Marty Schottenheimer was returning as head coach along-side Lindy Infante to run the offense, Dave Adolph to handle the defense and a young fiery coach named Bill Cowher to coach the special teams.
Bernie Kosar played great all season as the permanent leader of the team as the Browns went 12-4 and made the playoffs once again. Kosar started all 16 games, completing 310 passes for 3,854 yards and 17 touchdowns. He only threw 10 interceptions but was sacked 39 times for a loss of 274 yards. The amount of times he hit the dirt, was the only concern, they needed to keep the young superstar upright. As good as he was, he couldn’t read defenses or throw touchdown passes while laying on his back.
The Browns fever was at an all time high as the fans were falling in love with their young quarterback. A group of fans went as far as to come up with a popular song in tribute to Kosar.
“Bernie Bernie, Oh yeah, how you can throw!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Bernie Bernie, oh baby, Super Bowl!
He came from Miami and was oh so young,
Rifles to the Wizard, my what a gun!
Takes the snap, drops back and looks down the field,
Brennan breaks open and the victory is sealed.
Bernie Bernie, oh yeah, how you can throw,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Bernie Bernie, oh baby, Super Bowl!
The dogs are barking and all having fun,
Bernie will lead us to that place in the sun.
He has style and class at age 23,
The MVP of the AFC!
Bernie Bernie, oh yeah, how you can throw,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Bernie Bernie, oh baby, Super Bowl!
Cody and Baab keep blitzes at bay,
Give Bernie some time to make the big play.
Bernie Bernie, oh yeah, how you can throw,
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Bernie Bernie, oh baby, Super Bowl!
We gotta go, Super Bowl, We gotta go!
Go Browns!
The great season earned them a first round bye and home field advantage throughout the playoffs. They would take on the New York Jets in the first round on January 3, 1987, in one of the most memorable playoff games in NFL history. Kosar would throw for 489 yards in a double overtime thriller that fans still talk about almost thirty years later.
The Jets jumped out to a 7 – 0 lead when quarterback Pat Ryan hit Wesley Walker with a 42 yard pass for a touchdown. The Browns rallied back later in the first quarter to tie the game with a Kosar to Herman Fontenot 37 yard pass for a tying touchdown. The teams would also trade field goals before the half was over, and went into the locker room for halftime tied at 10 apiece.
The Jets added another field goal in the third quarter to take a 13 – 10 lead. They scored again in the fourth quarter on a Freeman McNeil 25 yard rush to expand the Jets lead to 20 – 10. The Browns had lost six straight playoff games dating back to 1970 and this one looked bleak as well. The Browns had been struggling to move the ball, they hadn’t scored since the second quarter. Their running game was struggling, only 21 yards on 15 carries.
The Browns were in deep trouble and running out of time. It was then that Kosar knew he needed to put the Browns on his shoulders and lead a desperation comeback before they were sent home for the winter. A crucial mistake committed by All Pro Jets defensive star Mark Gastineau gave the Browns new hope. With the Browns facing a second down and 24 from their own 18-yard line, Gastineau was called for a roughing the passer penalty that gave the Browns one last chance.
If he didn’t commit the bad penalty the Jets would have more than likely gotten the ball back and ran out the clock. The play had originally resulted in an incomplete, so instead of having a 3rd-and-24 situation, the 15-yard penalty on Gastineau gave the Browns a first down at their own 33. From there, Kosar drove the Browns the remaining 67 yards to a touchdown which cut the Jets’ lead to 20-17 on a Kevin Mack one yard rumble past the goal line.
The Browns defense managed to hold the Jets one more time, giving the ball back to Kosar own their own 33 with only 51 seconds left to play. Kosar led them on another incredible drive which allowed placekicker Mark Mosely to tie the game with seven seconds to go on a 22 yard field goal.
It was only minutes prior that the game looked like certain defeat; now two incredible drives led by Kosar, put the game into overtime. Neither team could break through and score in the first overtime which sent the game into double overtime. The Browns did have a chance to win it early in the first overtime but placekicker Mark Mosely had shanked an easy 27 yarder wide right.
Kosar was not going down without a fight and stepped up once again to lead the Browns on a game winning drive in double overtime, capped off by the winning 27 yard field goal to send the Browns fans into frenzy, and the team into the AFC Championship game. The game winning drive saw Kevin Mack take over. He had a run for 4 yards, a pass reception for 6, and then three straight runs later in the drive for 15, 4 and 7 yards to set up the chip shot field goal.
The following week on Sunday January 11, 1987 the Browns welcomed the Denver Broncos into Cleveland Municipal Stadium. It was only 21 degrees with the wind chill, and for the second straight week, the frozen fans of Cleveland Ohio were about to witness a classic.
The 1986 Denver Broncos were led by head coach Dan Reeves who was in his sixth season as head coach. He was a former player and performed in two Super Bowls during his playing days with the Dallas Cowboys. He also went to three Super Bowls as an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys once his playing career was done. He was from the Tom Landry coaching tree and became the youngest head coach in the NFL in 1981 when he took over in Denver. He had brought the Denver Broncos to the playoffs twice before, losing to the Seattle Seahawks in the 1983 Wild Card game and the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1984 Divisional round playoff game. He was determined that this year would be different!
The Broncos had a strong season that saw them win their first six games. They finished with a 11 – 5 record and were the AFC Western Division Champions. They were led by a man who would eventually go down as one of the greatest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. John Elway was coming off of a season where he only threw for 19 touchdowns and 3,485 yards. But what the stats didn’t show was his exceptional killer instinct and ability to put a team on his shoulders and lead a game winning comeback against any opponent at any time.
John Elway had been drafted number one overall by the Baltimore Colts in the 1983 draft. It was a draft that also saw future Hall of Famers Jim Kelly and Dan Marino selected in the first round. Elway had said for weeks prior to the draft that he would not play for Baltimore if they selected him, and demanded a trade the second that they did. He even threatened to quit football and play baseball for the New York Yankees instead. He was coming off a great career at Stanford University and carried a lot of stroke coming into the league.
His power play with the Colts eventually worked and he was traded to the Denver Broncos. Elway was the proto-typical perfect quarterback, a laser arm with great vision downfield; he also had great mobility and could scramble away from the very best defensive linemen in the league. John Elway was only at the beginning of a great career with Denver, and beating Cleveland was his first major mission to accomplish. For years to come, John Elway remained one of the most hated men in Cleveland because of his incredible games against the hometown Browns.
The Broncos were coming off of a 22 – 17 win against the defending AFC champion New England Patriots. John Elway was ready to lead his three top receivers Mark Jackson Vance Johnson and Steve Watson into battle against the stingy Cleveland Browns secondary. The Duke and his Three Amigos would have their hands full. They would also rely on their top running back Sammy Winder, who was coming off a season that saw him rush for 789 yards and nine touchdowns.
The Browns got off to a hot start as Kosar again hooked up with Herman Fontenot on a first quarter touchdown pass to put the Browns ahead. The Broncos would respond with 10 straight points of their own before Cleveland could answer with a field goal to close out the first half 10 – 10. It was following the same script from the prior week.
By the late fourth quarter, the Browns and Broncos had exchanged field goals and the game remained tied, 13 – 13. With a little over five minutes remaining in the game, Kosar hit Brian Brennan on a beautiful 48 yard touchdown pass to put the Browns ahead 20 – 13.
It looked like it was over when on the following kickoff; a Broncos miscue put them on their own two yard line with their backs against the ravenous dog pound. With 5:32 left in the game, it would take a near miracle for the Bronco’s to comeback. The 79,915 fans in Cleveland were screaming and cheering as they were certain they were on the doorstep of a championship. What happened instead was a legendary 98 yard drive led by John Elway that tied the game and sent it into overtime.
The drive was a thing of beauty, directed by a quarterback who simply refused to lose. John Elway started the drive with a short pass to Sammy Winder. A few plays later, Elway scrambled out of the pocket and ran for 11 yards and a first down. He then connected on a 22 yarder to Steve Sewell and backed that up with a 12 yard connection to Watson. All of a sudden, the Broncos had the ball on Cleveland’s 40 yard with still 2 minutes to work.
After an incompletion pass on first down, the Browns defense managed to sack Elway for an 8 yard loss, which set up a very long third and 18. Elways refused to panic, and even after a bad snap, managed to recover and throw a 20 yard rocket down the field to an open Mark Jackson to keep the drive alive at the Browns 28 yard line.
The hostile crowd was no match for Elway, as he continued to lead the drive. He connected on a 14 yard pass to Sewell that put them on the Browns 14 yard line. Two plays later, it was John Elway on a bad ankle, scrambling for a 9 yard run to move the ball down to the Browns five yard line. With 39 seconds to go, he found Jackson in the middle of the end zone and sent the Cleveland Browns fans into quiet mode.
The scoring drive came out of nowhere as on the two previous fourth quarter drives, Elway only led them to nine and six yards on each. Before the drive they still only had 216 total yards all day. Their only touchdown had come off a short 37 yard field following a costly Cleveland Browns fumble. One of Karlis two previous field goals was also the result of a short field that had followed an interception. It was later revealed that Elway actually had a bad left ankle which made it even more impressive.
The Broncos defense had also been stifling all day for the second year phenomena Bernie Kosar to have to deal with. Broncos assistant coach Joe Collier had prepared a special defensive strategy to stop Kosar and the Browns high profile attack. They decided they weren’t going to blitz, instead they would drop seven or even eight defenders into pass coverage and had its stunting lineman force the pressure on Kosar, who was not known for his mobility. The pressure worked as Kosar had one of his worst games of the year with two interceptions and several dropped interceptions. The tactic helped rattle Kosar because everyone was covered downfield.
The Broncos wasted no time in overtime moving the ball down the field. John Elway connected with tight end Orson Mobley for 22 yards. A couple of plays later he connected with Watson for 28 more yards. They then had three straight runs by Sammy Winder to keep the ball moving. From there it was their place kicker Rich Karlis booting a 33 yard field goal just barely between the goal posts to win the game. Many who saw the kick will swear that it was no good. The Browns had lost in the cruelest of ways. Bernie Kosar finished with 2 touchdown passes and 259 yards, but it wasn’t enough to stop destiny.
It was two magical drives by John Elway that let the league know he had officially arrived. It was two scoring drives, one of 98 yards and one of 60 yards. He ran for 20 yards and threw for 128 yards combined on both drives.
Despite the heartbreaking loss to Denver, the Browns had a lot to be proud of. They came within minutes of the Super Bowl, and had a young quarterback in only his second season. They were one of the most impressive teams in the entire league, and lost not only to a future Hall of Famer in Elway, but a team that caught the right breaks at the right time. Several times on the drive, the Browns had the Broncos in a third and long situation and simply couldn’t put them away. Fans have spoken for years about the greatness of Elway and the drive, but no one can take away from the supreme effort the Cleveland Browns players, coaches and fans gave on that epic Sunday.
