Cleveland Browns: Best game of each decade 1940s-1990s
The DPD staff takes a trip down memory lane to determine the Cleveland Browns best games of the decade from 1940 through the year 2000
We’re back. Elliot Kennel and I were asked to put our knowledge of Cleveland Browns history (ahem, we’re old) to the test and decide on the greatest Cleveland Browns game for every decade from the 1940s through the 1990s.
PHere’s what we came up with. Tell us where we’re right. Tell us where we’re wrong. Mostly enjoy this walk down memory lane as much as we have. Go Browns
The Perfect Season of the 1940s – How can you pick just one?
The 1948 Cleveland Browns were undefeated in the regular season in 1948. But knowing that the 1972 Dolphins are the only NFL team to go undefeated in the season and playoffs, can you guess how the Browns season ended?
The core of the team was quarterback Otto Graham, fullback Marion Motley, halfback Dub Jones (not to be confused with Edgar Jones, the other halfback on the team) and wideouts Mac Speedie and Dante Lavelli and offensive linemen Lou Groza and Frank Gatski.
On defense, the Browns were led by another future Hall of Famer in Bill Willis, defensive tackle Chubby Grigg plus linebacker Alex Agase and defensive backs Cliff Lewis, and Lou Saban.
Lewis, incidentally is the answer to a trivia question, because it was he who started the first-ever Browns game at quarterback, rather than Otto Graham, and continued to serve as a backup quarterback while leading the Browns in interceptions.
By the end of the 1948 season, the Browns managed to go undefeated with a 14–0 record. That year the two best teams were clearly the Browns and the San Francisco 49ers, who actually outscored the Browns by a whopping 495 to 389. However, the Browns led the AAFC in fewest points allowed with 190, followed by the 49ers at 248. The other teams all gave up over 300 points.
The Championship game was not with the 49ers, however, because they were in the same division as the Browns who had beaten them twice in the regular season. Those were the only two losses the 12-2 49ers had that year. Sadly, they had to stay home while the Browns played the 7-7 Buffalo Bills.
The Bills featured quarterback George Ratterman who would later evolve into a backup quarterback with the Browns. Rex Bumgardner was also on that Bills team, and would later become a Cleveland Brown in 1950.
Amazingly, black and white newsreel footage of the 1948 AAFC Championship game exists on Youtube:
Not only that, but the footage includes a primitive use of slow motion replay. Note that the Browns are wearing white helmets at this time, rather than their familiar orange helmets, and Graham is No. 60 rather than his familiar No. 14 from the NFL. The Bills were bumblers from the outset.
Ratterman threw an early interception, and a little later, Bumgardner coughed up the football and allowed George Young to score a defensive touchdown. The Browns on the other hand, appear to be unstoppable. Motley is seen crushing the Bills defense, running out of play action as well as direct handoffs. No one on the Bills can stop him one-on-one, and it usually takes half the team to bring the big man down, but he almost always makes positive yardage.
Lou Saban (yep, the same Lou Saban the football coach and father of former Browns defensive coordinator and present head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide, Nick Saban) ended the game by intercepting a pass from Jimmy Still and going in for the pick-six.
One of the reasons that the NFL eventually won out over the AAFC is that the Browns were too good. They steamrollered their opponents, and as a consequence there were not many close games. The Browns blew out the Bills to go undefeated and untied.
Wait a minute, so how come the 1972 Miami Dolphins are recorded as the only undefeated pro team? Well, the answer is that the NFL decided not to count the AAFC stats when the two leagues merged in 1950. But today there is no football historian anywhere that believes there was some other team in 1948 better than the Cleveland Browns.