As I watched Butch Davis's North Carolina Tarheels blow an 18-point lead to struggling Florida State the other night, curiously, I began to wax nostalgic. At first I was perplexed by these unexpected feelings. But as I thought about the current Browns I began to understand why. The 2009 Browns are horrific. Coach Mangini has fans crying out "Romeo, Romeo, where for art thou Romeo?"! These Browns can't run, run block, pass, catch, pass block, defend the run or rush the passer. Consequently, they are out of every game. Even if the score is relatively close, you know the Browns will never pull it out. This is BORRRING! Now the Butch Davis Browns knew how to lose. Under Butch the Browns engineered some of the most memorable, excruciating, unbelievable, unthinkable ways to lose NFL football games. My question to you is what is the most incredible Browns loss in the Lerner era? My vote goes to the Dwayne Rudd helmet game. It was opening day 2002 against the Kansas City Chiefs. With 29 seconds left Phil Dawson kicked a field goal (his fourth of the day) to put the Browns on top 39-37. Dawson and Gardocki (the place kick holder) were called for unsportsmanlike conduct. That's right the kicker and the punter were called for taunting. As a result Dawson had to kick from the 15 yard line. The Chiefs ran the ball back to their own 35. After a twelve yard scramble Trent Green spiked the ball with four seconds remaining. Then, Dwayne Rudd blitzed on the following Hail Mary play. As Green was being pulled down by Rudd, he flicked the ball to lineman John Tait. Tait had never run with the ball in his football life dating all the way back to Pop Warner. But on this day against the Browns he rumbled 28 yards down to the Browns 25 yard line. Rudd thought he had sacked Green and the game was over. So he did what any classless football player would do. He ripped his helmet off and strutted around. Why wouldn't Rudd want to bring attention to himself? He was part of a defense that gave up three Priest Holmes rushing touchdowns in the last 9 minutes of the game. Since the game was not actually over Rudd was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct for taking his helmet off. The ball was moved half the distance to the goal line. Morten Anderson kicked the game-winning field goal with no time on the clock. That Browns fans is how to lose an NFL game.
My favorite loss in the "new" Browns era was the 2001 Chicago Bears game. The Browns had the ball with a 21-7 lead and 5:29 to play. After 7 consecutive handoffs to James Jackson, the Chris Gardocki punted into the Bears endzone and Shane Mathews (Bears QB) took over at his 20 with 1:52 to play. You may remember Butch Davis congratulating his assistants on the sidelines and the equipment managers packing up the kicking gear. With :28 left, Mathews hit Michael Booker on a 9-yard TD pass. Of course, the Bears recovered the onsides kick and scored the tying touchdown on a hail mary pass that was tipped and caught by running back James Allen with no time on the clock. The Bears won the OT coin flip but had to punt. On his third play from scrimmage during the OT period, Tim Couch's pass was deflected by Bryan Robinson, intercepted by Mike Brown, and returned for a touchdown. Bears 27, Browns 21.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory is Butch Davis celebrating on the sideline before the game was over. He was unprepared for the job and that moment proved it to me.