Five Near Misses for a Cleveland Browns Super Bowl
No. III: The Fumble, January 17, 1988
This writer has gotten to know Earnest Byner a little bit through Browns functions, and I can verify for you that what you saw on Believeland is true. Earnest has never forgiven himself for the fumble which he feels cost the Browns and Cleveland a Super Bowl. He’s way too harsh on himself, but we will get into that in a moment.
The Browns had gotten themselves in a terrible pickle against hated John Elway and the Denver Broncos in the AFC Championship game, falling behind 21-3 at halftime. But quarterback Bernie Kosar, aided and abetted by Byner, led a furious comeback with four second-half touchdowns. The only problem was that Elway’s Broncos scored seventeen points to vault ahead 38-31.
Cleveland needed 75 yards to tie the game. Byner was (almost) unstoppable, accounting for 187 yards from scrimmage, mostly in the second half. But after taking a pitch from Kosar and the end zone in sight, he was stripped of the ball by Broncos defensive back Jeremiah Castille at the one-yard line and that was that.
I have had a running debate with Earnest on this intensely painful subject. Earnest, are you the reason that the Browns gave up 38 points? Does that sound like a championship defense? If you had scored, there was no two-point conversion at that time, so the best result would have been to go to overtime. It’s not clear that the Browns were going to emerge with a victory given that they could not stop Elway and the Broncos.
For that reason, this game is listed as only the third closest opportunity to the Super Bowl, although some might list it as No. 1.
The winner of the AFC Championship won only the opportunity to go play Washington in the Super Bowl. At that time Joe Gibbs and his hogs were still at their peak. In the Super Bowl, you can be sure that no Browns fans were rooting for Denver, and so Washington was much appreciated because of the way that they absolutely humiliated Denver.
Five touchdown passes by Doug Williams in the second quarter set a Super Bowl record and allowed Washington to coast to a 42-10 win. The game was not nearly as close as the score would indicate. Consider that Washington rushed for 280 yards compared to only 97 for the Broncos. For good measure, they added 322 yards net passing yards, while Elway got sacked five times and was limited to 230 net passing yards.
Under those circumstances, it’s hard to imagine that the Browns would have beaten Washington. No, a Super Bowl victory would have been a longshot, though it would have been awesome just to be part of it. San Diego is a great city and spending a week there would have been a blast.
The Browns had an even better chance for the gold ring a year earlier, in a season that ended with a Broncos loss referred to as The Drive.