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The Denver Broncos faced the Cleveland Browns at Cleveland Stadium for the AFC Championship game on Sunday, January 11, 1987.
Denver was coached by Dan Reeves and won the AFC West in 1986 under fourth-year quarterback John Elway.
Cleveland was led by third-year coach Marty Schottenheimer.
They were coming off a thrilling double-overtime win over the Jets in the divisional round of the playoffs a week earlier.
This audio recording is from the NBC Radio broadcast featuring announcers Mel Proctor and Dave Rowe.
Hello everybody, Mel Proctor along with Dave Rowe speaking to you from Cleveland Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio on a cold, windy afternoon.
Temperatures in the 30s, the wind blowing out of the northwest at 17 miles per hour.
And with a wind chill factor it feels like it's 6 degrees as the Denver Broncos and Cleveland Browns swell off for the AFC Championship.
The winner of today's game will meet the winner of the Giants Redskins game on January the 25th in the Super Bowl in Pasadena, California.
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The Denver Broncos last played in the AFC title game in 1977 when they beat the Raiders to advance to the Super Bowl.
For the Browns it will be their first appearance in an AFC Championship game.
They last played in the title game in 1969 for the NFL Championship losing to the Minnesota Vikings.
The Broncos won the AFC's Western Division with 11-5 mark. They beat New England in a playoff game last week 22-17 in Denver.
And the AFC Central Division Browns finished their regular season with a 12-4 mark and one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history last week.
They rallied from a 20-10 deficit with 4-14 left in regulation and beat the New York Jets in double overtime 23-20.
Dave Rowe, we talked about the weather. It's cold, it's windy. How will that affect the two quarterbacks in these two teams?
Well, both these quarterbacks have thrown in cold weather. Both these quarterbacks know what the conditions are like.
They've experienced them all season long. But I'll tell you, this gives a lot of credibility to the fact that they should play playoff games in neutral sites in warm climates or have dome stadiums.
Because weather is an important factor here today. The wind is whipping off that water. We've seen heavy snow, we've seen light snow, we've seen wind.
And it's just all over the field. The wind affects wherever you are, it'll affect the passing game differently.
The Browns are favored by roughly three points, flying before a sellout cloud of over 80,000.
Many of them wearing dog faces and dog ears and barking and woofing. How much of a factor is the home field advantage?
Well, if I was a visiting team and I was going to the, I guess you'd say that's the East End Zone, I would try to avoid that.
That is amazing. That end zone, there must be 75 rows of people. They are unbelievable. They call it the dog area or whatever.
The dog pound. The dog pound. It is an unbelievable sight. I have never in all my years of playing football seen the emotion that this crowd has.
This is an unbelievable crowd. I just had a fantastic time just walking around listening to them.
And we are ready to go from Cleveland as Rick Carlos tees it off to Browns, one that Tossin will receive back deep.
For the Cleveland Browns, the dangerous Gerald McNeil, the ice cube, is the only man in the NFL this year to return a punt and a kickoff for touchdown.
He's standing at the goal line. Carlos, the barefoot kicker. And imagine his toes are freezing in this weather.
And here we go from Cleveland. Rick Carlos drives a high short end over end kick. It'll hit.
Bouncing around the five yard line.
And it's picked up and run out of bounds.
By Herman Fondo of the Cleveland Browns.
He thought the ball was going to go out of bounds. Waited for it. It never bounced out of bounds.
And now that was a double-hick. He's knocked out of bounds himself at about the 19th.
Now that's due to have the wind play the factor, Mel. The ball was actually kicked. It looked as if it was going to go out of bounds.
It just kind of bobbled there. And he had to field it on the five yard line about a yard in from the sideline.
The Cleveland Browns open with Kevin Mack and Ernest Beiner in the backfield. Beiner was just activated.
He tore up an ankle in the seventh week of this season. They got two good running backs in there.
Cozar, of course, is the quarterback for any Cozar.
And the pitch on first down is to Mack on a sweep right. He's hit, breaks the tackle, and lunges forward to the 21 yard line.
Brought down by Lewis Wright, the five-time Pro Bowler in his 12th year.
On the offensive line for the Browns, Ricky Bolden is the left tackle. Cody Reisen, a Pro Bowler on the right side.
The yards are Paul Ferentz. And Dan Fike is the right guard. Mike Babb is the center.
The wide receivers are Reggie Langhorn and rookie Webster Slaughter. The tight end is the Wizard of Oz, Ozzy Newsom.
Gain of one, second down and nine for the Browns, moving left to right from Cleveland Stadium.
Webster Slaughter is wide to the left.
And put out to the right side is Brian Brennan. He goes in motion.
Cozar on the handoff to Kevin Mack running to his right. And he's knocked out of bounds at about the 22, a tough one-yard pickup.
And again, it was Lewis Wright coming up from his left cornerback spot to make the tackle.
It is so hard to get outside against this Denver Bronco defense. They play it a 34 defense.
They play three down linemen, four linebackers. And their four linebackers are as good as any linebackers in the league.
Very, very mobile. Not great physical specimen. Strong, but very, very quick.
Herman Fontenot is in the backfield now for the Cleveland Browns. Langhorn is put out wide to the right.
Brennan is wide to the left. Fontenot, a good receiver, is the lone setback.
Third and eight for Bernie Cozar. He takes the snap, drops back to throw, getting some pressure.
Now running to his right, throws on the run. It's almost picked off.
Randy Robbins nearly had it and he would have been in for a touchdown if he'd caught it, but it's incomplete.
And it was Robbins who picked off a pass and ran it in 62 yards for a touchdown the last time these teams met in 1984.
And he really should have had that ball. He stepped right in front of the receiver. He was on the run.
Cozar just started to step up in the pocket in the last minute, just winged the ball there.
He never picked up the secondary reacting to it, and they were, they really dodged the bullet on that play.
So Cleveland is unable to move on their first possession. Jeff Gossett is into punt. He has never had a punt blocked in his NFL career.
Gerald Willehyde is standing back at the Denver 39 awaiting the kick. And it's a poor wobbly kick hitting it midfield.
It takes a Cleveland bounce inside the Denver 45 and it will be down at the 42 yard line.
The Broncos will have excellent field position.
Major Everett, a special team star down there to down it, got a good roll on a 37 yard punt.
So the Broncos begin this drive from the Denver 42.
John Elway is the quarterback, the running back for Sandy Winder, Gerald Willehyde, the wide receiver is Vance Johnson,
who caught a touchdown pass last week against New England, and Steve Watson.
Orson Mobley is the tight end, although they have activated Clarence Kaye who spent the last four weeks in a drug rehabilitation program.
Denver moving left or right. The Broncos wearing their orange jerseys, white pants, blue helmets, and 80,000 plus.
Again to Howell, John Elway will throw on first down, guns it over the middle,
instantly through the hands of his tight end, Orson Mobley, Eddie Johnson back in coverage.
There were some questions of whether he would start. He's banged up with a bad knee and a bad ankle, but he is in the starting lineup.
Yeah, he has a big job in front of him. He is outsized a lot by Orson Mobley.
The tight end is 6'6". Eddie Johnson is going 6'1". There's a big, big match of difference there in height.
He's got his hands full today trying to cover Orson Mobley.
And then he's got his foot on right to the right. Vance Johnson swatted on the right side.
Tight end Mobley is in motion left or right. Elway back to throw, getting some pressure,
retreating a screen pass incomplete and there's a penalty marker down.
He tried to hit Sammy Winder, but the screen never materialized and Elway was getting a lot of pressure.
It looks like it's going to be defense and holding way downfield.
What's happened 20 yards from the play? It was on the entire opposite side of the field.
It's against Denver.
By the way, the referee today is Chuck Heverling. The umpire is Gordon Wells.
The headlinesman is Ed Merriam. The line judge is Bill Reynolds. The back judge is Ben Tompkins.
Gary Lane is the side judge. The field judge is Johnny Greer. And Jim Tunnig is the alternate.
And that was an interesting call. That was against Orson Mobley. He was on this side of the field.
The near side of the field, the penalty was a screen play. The other side of the field, they called Mobley
for downfield blocking while the pass was being thrown in every pass interference.
Ben Plancy, a pass rushing specialist, checks in for Cleveland.
It'll be second down and 10 now for the Broncos following the penalty from the 32-yard line.
Offensive pass interference, number 80, number 89. A penalty will be declined. Third down.
So they declined the penalty. It was against Orson Mobley.
Third down. Third down and 10. No, second down.
Well, they have moved the six. I thought we heard the referee say it was going to be third down.
It would be third down about 20 yards. The down marker still indicates second down.
Scoreboard read, third down. And it's beginning to snow again. The wind really whipping off Lake Erie.
Strange sight here at Cleveland City. One of the strangest was a sailboat out on Lake Erie before the game.
It said on the sail, it said, Go Brown. Oh, I couldn't believe coming over here, too.
We passed the car and the guy was driving, had a football helmet on as he was driving down.
I think, I don't know what they're doing. We're having a conference here with the officials.
And now they're deciding, I think they're going to decide whether to take the penalty or not.
They may change their mind on that.
Offensive pass interference on number 89. The penalty will be accepted. It's second down.
So they will accept the penalty on pass interference and it will be second down.
Second down from the 32 yard line will be second and 20 now. John Elway will go for the shotgun.
Steve Watson is in motion. And the crowd really getting loud.
Elway retreating to throw, getting pressure from the right side, stepped up in the pocket, now going to run across to 30,
take it out of bounds and he's chased off the 33 yard line by Chip Banks, the Pro Bowl linebacker.
He's been a Pro Bowler for the last five seasons, making it again this year.
And now coming into this game, one of the big questions was going to be the mobility of John Elway,
whether that ankle that he sprained so severely last week would work for him, whether he would be hobbled.
That time he showed he's got the mobility. He ran probably 25 yards.
The Browns will go with six defensive backs. There's Mark Harper and Felix Reich, second of the game.
Second down and 18 for Denver on a windy afternoon from Cleveland.
John Elway who passed for 3485 yards during the regular season.
Back to throw, dumps it over the middle, complete.
To Gerald Wilhite, Wilhite running for the far sideline up and into the 49 yard line.
Two of the Browns knocking him out of bounds, Ray Ellis and Chip Banks combining on the tackle.
And now the wind and the snow are really beginning to pick up.
They call Lake Squall where that wind comes off the lake and it picks up moisture.
We're right on the edge. We can look out to see the water and the snow is pouring down here.
Mike Horan, who averaged 49 yards to kick last week against New England, is in the putt into a driving wind and snow.
Gerald McNeil, appropriately named, the ice cube standing back at the 10.
He'll sit right in today. If the wind doesn't blow him away, he only weighs 147 pounds.
It's blowing hard and the wind is really blowing right into the face of the putter Horan as he awaits the snap from Keith Bishop.
No score from Cleveland. A wobbly snap, the left footer gets it away and it's a good kick, but the wind holds it up and it goes out of bounds at the 13 yard line.
Great placement by Horan who's done a marvelous job since joining Denver.
He really has. They call him the touch. He has that touch where he can drop it inside the 20 yard line.
He has been very, very effective this year and we've got a time out with 1237 remaining in the first quarter from Cleveland.
The Broncos and the Browns are scoreless.
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Mel Proctor with Dave Rowe back at Cleveland Stadium on a cold windy afternoon and obviously the weather is going to be a factor.
These teams have never met in postseason play until today.
Denver leads the all-time series, 8 to 3 and the Broncos have won the last seven games between these two teams.
I think Dave, on a day without the wind, the cold, the snow, you might expect a high-scoring game with Bernie Kozar and John Elway,
but on a day like this, who knows what to expect.
Well, after that ball goes 10 yards, now it just starts to flutter.
So, passing should not be a factor today, especially if the wind keeps up.
First down for the Browns, we've got a misdrive from their 13-yard line.
Biner and Mack are in the I-formation.
Bernie Kozar with a play-action fake back to throw.
They're going to blow this play dead.
Penalty markers are down.
Looks like the right tackle, Cody Horizon, may have moved early.
First start, right tackle, five yards, first down.
Horizon, who was named to the Pro Bowl for the first time, that'll set the Browns back to the nine-yard line.
Herman Fontenot checks in. They like to use him in passing situations.
And Ernest Biner comes out.
Now, we are going to be able to see this game, aren't we?
The way that snow's coming down in our spot, it's coming down hard here.
First down and 15 from the Cleveland 9.
Kozar back to throw from his old goal line.
Looks to his right, guns the pass, it's caught by Ozzie Newton.
Out of bounds at the 13-yard line.
Lewis Wright was there in coverage, but he was juggling the pass and couldn't hold it.
So, it's an incompletion.
Yes, Mel, you have to have control of that ball when both feet come down.
Whether you're inbounds or out of bounds, that's quite a story.
They call it the completed pass.
He bobbled the ball when he came down.
Are you surprised, Dave, how frequently both Kozar and Elway are trying to throw
into the weather conditions, into this wind?
Well, neither one of them are really great running teams.
Sammy Winder had his best day last week,
but Cleveland has not gotten this far via the run, so they have got to pass the ball.
Second down and 15 from the 9-yard line.
Webster Flodder is wide to the left.
Herman Fontenot is in motion out of the backfield.
Kozar backpedals into the pocket, getting pressure, steps up, now running laterally.
Heading for the far sidelines, he stumbles and he's pushed out of bounds at the 12-yard line.
Kozar is not a very mobile quarterback.
He averaged 0.8 yards per rush this year,
unlike his counterpart, John Elway, who's a great scrambler.
Yes, absolutely.
Bernie Kozar, a lot of people say that he avoids that pressure by getting rid of the ball quickly.
That time he just has no one to throw to.
The wind is swirling.
He's looking into the face of a lot of Broncos,
especially the Bronco defense, because they move these linebackers away.
Mecklenburg moves inside, outside.
They just move all over the place, especially Hunley and Mecklenburg.
Claris Weathers is in.
He and Brian Brennan put out wide to the left side.
Reggie Langhorn is wide to the right.
Passing situation for Bernie Kozar.
Fontenot is the lone setback.
Kozar on third and 12, back to throw, setting up at the 4, fires the pass.
He's caught at the 25-yard line by Reggie Langhorn, and he's got a first down.
Hit immediately by Randy Robbins, San Luis Wright,
and a big play by Kozar, getting the Browns out of the hole.
They really did get him out of the hole.
That was a big down.
If he doesn't make that and the Broncos are able to hold him,
they're going to have to punt from deep in their own territory.
But Kozar, who threw last week for an NFL record playoff number of throws,
has decided he's going to throw the ball today, regardless of what the weather is.
Kozar against the Jets, completed 33 of 64 passes for 489 yards.
The attempt, the completion, and the yardage are all NFL playoff marks.
The
Broncos are going to be the first to throw for the Browns at the Cleveland 25.
No score with 1134 remaining in the first quarter.
Three wide receivers for the Browns.
Long count by Kozar. He'll throw again.
Back he goes, looking to his left, guns the pass, and it's caught
near the 40-yard line by Herman Fontenot,
and he's wrestled down by the right quarterback, Mike Harden.
But it's another first down for Cleveland.
Kozar amazingly throwing with the wind, gusting the way it is.
He's not particularly that tall a quarterback, so he needs that lane to throw in.
That time his offensive line took the rush of Denver, just kind of spread him out,
made him come around the outside, he stepped up in the pocket, found his receiver,
and just drilled a bullet there.
Webster Slatter goes wide to the left.
Brennan and Fontenot put out wide to the right.
First and 10 at the Cleveland 38-yard line.
The tight end, Harry Holt shifts from the left side to the right side.
Kevin Mack, just a low setback.
Kozar on the handoff to Mack, starts up the middle, bounces to the outside,
running to his right across the 40, puts his head down and drives to the 43-yard line.
A gain of about five yards as Tom Jackson and Tony Lilly make this stop.
We've got the two oldest linebackers in the NFL involved in this game.
Tom Jackson, Brad Van Pelt of Cleveland, they're both 35.
Jackson is a day older than Van Pelt.
Well, and Jackson's quite an inspiration for the Broncos, as is Van Pelt for the Cleveland Browns.
Both of them very vocal, emotional players, and really choose their respective defenses up.
Second down and five from the Cleveland 43-yard line.
Fontenot and Langhorne are wide to the left.
Webster's slaughter is wide to the right.
Kozar turns and hands to Kevin Mack straight ahead across the 45-50 into the Denver territory
and tackles it to the Broncos, 42-yard line.
Lewis Wright, Tony Lilly on the stop, Kevin Mack, the Browns leading rusher,
zips off another first down.
One of the concerns I had going down on the field, walking around with the footing there,
this field has been torn up, but they rolled it, they put a lot of sand down, they painted it.
The field looks as if it's staying in pretty good order right now.
Mack's carried four times for 22 yards, the first down for the Browns, moving into Denver 42.
And again it's Mack getting the call, blasting up the middle inside the 40 to the 38-yard line,
and again a four, Carl Mecklenburg on the stop.
He's headed for the Pro Bowl, the four-year veteran from Minnesota.
Broncos defensively have Roulon Jones, Greg Cragen, and Andre Townsend up front.
The linebackers in the outside, Jim Ryan and Tom Jackson.
The inside backers are Carl Mecklenburg and Ricky Hundley.
At the corners, Lewis Wright and Mike Harden.
Strong safety is Steve Foley and the free safety, Dennis Smith.
Randy Robbins is also seeing a lot of action in that spot.
Smith missed last week's game with a bad knee.
Now one of the things the Broncos have got to do is get that penetration up front.
They cannot go man for man with sides because Cleveland outweighs their defensive front.
Langhorn is wide left, Flatter is wide to the right.
Fontano and Mack are the running backs.
Kozlar with a play-action fake rolling to his right, being chased.
He's hit as he unrolls, and it's deflected and falls incomplete.
He tried to hit Herman Fontano, he couldn't hold it.
The ball squirted into the air and was nearly picked off by Lewis Wright, and it falls incomplete.
They really need to run the ball in this situation.
They had third down, they had second down at about six yards to go.
I would have kept it on the ground, especially Kevin Mack.
Because he had such good vision into the hole, he saw the scene.
They'll pick up big yards. They've driven this ball from their own 13th, via the ground.
Bernie Kozlar has completed two of five passes for 26 yards so far.
Third down and seven from the Denver 39-yard line.
No score from Chilly Cleveland.
Back goes Kozlar, looks over the middle, he's got Fontano at the 20.
Inside down to the 15-yard line, another first down.
Dennis Smith dropped him at the 15-yard line, and it'll be a first down for the Cleveland Browns, deep in Denver territory.
And when Fontano came off the ball, he immediately was picked up by Jim Ryan, the outside linebacker from Denver, and he completely fooled him.
He gave a little hitch fake, he went back to the middle, he was running right down the center of the field wide open, had a 10-yard lead over Jim Ryan, who was trying to cover him.
Bernie Kozlar likes to use a lot of different receivers.
Last week against the Jets, he threw to nine different receivers.
First down for Cleveland, moving left or right at the Denver 15-yard line.
Slaughter is wide to the left, Langhorn is split to the right.
Kozlar takes the snap, hands to Kevin Mack, flashing up the middle, breaking tackles, inside the 10, down to the 9-yard line.
Andre Townsend, the right defensive end, made the tackle.
Kozlar really mixing his plays well, Dave.
Very, very well. But that's a good example right there of the vision that Mack has.
He was starting to run that play, which was designed to go off tackle.
That's what they call about the 5-7 hole, number, generically.
All of a sudden, he cut back over the guard, found a seam.
Mack has got great vision, that's why they rushed.
A couple years ago, they rushed for over a thousand yards a piece.
Ryan Brennan is in the game now, he's wide to the right.
Webster Slaughter is wide to the left, second down and five.
From about the 9-yard line, Fondo is in motion.
Kozlar gives to Mack straight ahead, he's straightened up.
Myrulan Jones, who brings him down at the 9, a tough 1-yard pick up for Kevin Mack, who gained over a thousand yards last year.
Both he and Ernest Biner gained over a thousand last season, but they brought in a new offensive coordinator, and Lindy and Fata, and they've emphasized the pass this year with great success.
Well, they've been able to move the ball down the field, and if you have that balance between run and pass, you can move the ball effectively.
That's what the Cleveland Browns did not have in the past.
They were known as the running team power of football, but with Kozlar and his leadership ability back there, and the ability to find that open receiver, that's what you want to do, have that balance between run and pass.
Webster Slaughter, Reggie Langhorne is put out wide to the left.
Clarence Weathers is wide to the right side.
Kozlar, retreating, looks to his right.
Guns at pass is caught at the 7-yard line by Brennan with the penalty marker down, and now they're waving it off and saying it's an incomplete pass.
They've clapped it.
We've got a flag down.
Holding against Denver is the preliminary education by Chuck Everland.
That probably would bring up a first down or third down, about three would have brought up a field goal position to kick a field goal, and I believe that'll give them a first down inside the problem, inside the 5-yard line.
Holding defense number 20.
Half a distance to the goal.
First down.
Penalty against Lewis Wright, a 12-year veteran from San Jose State, so it'll be first and goal to go at the 4-yard line.
Double-tide ends the game now, Travis Tucker and Harry Holt for Cleveland.
Given the Browns an emotional lift to have Ernest Beiner back.
He's a fiery, emotional type player, just a thing of fine running back and a good blocker.
First and goal to go, and Beiner is in there with Kevin Mack.
Flip behind Kozar.
Fake to Mack, Kozar throwing it to the end zone, and it's dropped to the end zone.
Harry Holt was unable to hold it.
They don't throw to Holt very often, but that one would have been sick if he'd held on.
Well, they faked a great running play-action pass.
He faked into the line.
Everybody thought that Beiner and Mack was going to get the ball.
Harry Holt snuck off the line.
He was wide open.
He just, the ball kind of wobbled in that wind, and he just didn't come down with a catch.
He should have caught that ball.
That was a big one.
Major Everett checks into the Browns' backfield.
Normally he's a special-team player.
Second down, goal to go from the 4-yard line.
Kevin Mack and Everett are in the I-formation with Everett to lead back.
The pitch to Mack running to his left, and he fumbles the football.
A big pile up near the 5-yard line, and the Browns have recovered.
Travis Tucker recovered it.
Well, that could have been a crucial play to fumble down on the 4- or 5-yard line.
They're going into the end zone that they like to go into towards the doghouse, I guess you'd call it.
They call that area the dog pound.
The dog pound.
Well, there's a lot of dogs down there, and I'm saying that with respect to the people here in Cleveland.
People wearing dog masks and have their faces painted, and they throw dog bones and biscuits out of the field.
They fart.
Third down, goal to go from the 6-yard line.
Webster Slaughter and Reggie Langhorn go wide to the left.
Barrett's weather is just wide to the right.
Fontenot is the lone setback, running in motion.
Back goes Kozar, swings it out of the backfield to Fontenot, breaks the tackle, and he is in for a touchdown!
Herman Fontenot is hit at the 5-yard line by the strong safety Tony Lilly, broke the tackle and took it in for a touchdown.
The Browns have the lead.
As Fontenot came out of the backfield, he's swinging one-on-one with the coverage.
Lilly kind of flipped a little bit, tried to dive at his leg.
He hit Fontenot, but Fontenot was able to jump over top of him and go in for a score.
Jeff Gossett will hold for Mark Mosley, who was the hero last week, kicking the field goal in the second overtime to give the Browns the win over the Jets.
It's 6-0 Cleveland, and they're howling in the dog pound.
This is the culmination of an 87-yard drive in this kind of weather.
That's tremendous.
While it's spotted out by Gossett, Mosley's kick is good.
And with 5 minutes, 19 seconds remaining in the first quarter in this AFC Championship game from Cleveland, it's the Browns 7, and the Broncos nothing.
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The Cleveland Browns drove 91 yards on 15 plays.
Bernie Kozak completing a five-yard pass to Herman Fondo.
And Mark Mosley's conversion has given the Browns a 7-0 lead.
We mentioned Denver has won the last seven games between these two teams.
Cleveland's last victory was here at Cleveland Stadium in 1974 when they won 23-21.
Denver has won four of the five games played here.
But the Browns lead this one 7-0 as Mosley tees it up.
Ken Bell and Gene Lang are backseat for the Denver Broncos standing at the 10 awaiting the kick.
More importantly, they were able to control the clock and control the tempo of the game.
Here's Mosley's kickoff.
High short kick into the wind will be taken by Bell at the 10 straight ahead to the 15.
To the 20, he's nailed right there because the penalty marker dies.
The Browns take great pride in their special team.
D.D. Hoggard was down at a really lay a hit on Bell.
Of course, that flag was thrown away from the ball.
It was thrown probably 15 yards upfield.
So it's something, some type of action that happened coming downfield.
Either a blind, illegal block or it could have been going against the covered team
because referee immediately threw that flag as they were running down.
And let's pause five seconds for station identification.
31 degrees at noon. This is 67 WMAQ Radio Chicago.
Walking below the waist.
Number 57, Emily Fanchi.
Half the distance to the goal.
Walking below the waist against Tom Jackson and the Denver Broncos and the special teams.
And again, the Broncos will have poor field position beginning this ride at the 10 following the penalty.
Now for Denver, they're in the dog pound, as you call it down there.
The noise is deafening.
Elway has got to, if he wants to do any motion, he's got to go with hands.
They go to bring motion.
He's got to, he's got his work cut out for coming out of that end zone.
Dan Johnson goes wide to the right.
Keith Sewell with a foot out wide to the left.
First down for the Broncos at the Denver 10.
Elway will stay on the ground with a handoff.
This is Sammy Winder running to his left, turns the corner and he's knocked out at the 12 yard line.
And, and for Dixon, the goal ball quarterback making the stop for the Cleveland Browns.
He's the young man who dubs the Browns defense to the dogs.
Boy, that's all it is in this town.
We walked around the stadium before the game.
It's amazing, the dog bones and dog faces, dog ears.
It's amazing the way these people have gone to the dogs.
Five yard pick up, second down and five from the 15 yard line.
Steve Watson is wide to the right.
Long step back is Sammy Winder.
Mobley, the tight end is in motion.
Play action fake to Winder.
Elway with time, guns it over the middle and the pass is caught by Steve Watson and he is really tagged at the 29 yard line.
Chris Rockins, the big hitter, is the man who stuck him at the first down for Denver.
And for Steve Watson, he is the culmination of his and the twilight of his career, nine years coming, nine years.
The thing that's so interesting about him, he was a free agent, came out of Temple University in Philadelphia.
Nobody, you know, you never hear a big time wide receiver coming out of Temple University.
Came out there and he has never missed a game since 1979.
First half for the Broncos, moving right to left from the Denver 30.
Cleveland leads seven to nothing.
Will Hyde is back in the backfield along with Sammy Winder.
Hand off to Winder straight ahead, grinding it out to the 35 yard line where Clay Matthews makes the stop.
Defensively for Cleveland, they have Reggie Camp, Bob Golick and Carl Hirston up front.
Four outstanding linebackers, Chip Banks and Clay Matthews.
Eddie Johnson and Anthony Griggs at the corner, maybe two of the best in man-to-man coverage in the NFL.
Frank Minifield and Henford Dixon.
The strong safety is Ray Ellis and the free safety is Chris Rockins to replace the late Don Rogers.
Second down and four for Denver from the Broncos, 36.
Steve Sewell is in motion, Elway on the handoff to Winder, slamming to his right and doesn't get much.
Stop at the line of scrimmage by Chip Banks, a five-year veteran from USC.
Now as I look down the field, one of the things, the first thing I noticed was the split of the Denver Broncos.
Their two guards are splitting up.
Normal split between the linemen is about two feet at guard center, about a foot and a half at guard center,
then two feet between the guard and the tackle and of course the end splits out.
Denver is splitting Bishop, especially splitting about a yard wide, as is Mark Cooper on the other side.
They really are splitting them wide trying to open those inside lanes.
The Broncos send Vance Johnson and Mark Jackson into the game, third down and two.
The Browns with six defensive back to them there, Elway from the shotgun.
Back he goes, retreating inside the 30, looks over the middle.
He's got a man open to complete the pass, Vance Johnson, no one near him as he turned to make his cut.
He apparently slips and now a little scuffle breaks out between Chief Bishop and the Denver Broncos and a couple of the Browns.
Johnson might have been able to pick up some additional yardage, but as he turned to run up field, he lost his footing.
And we were down on the field before the game and there are some slippery areas.
A lot of it is sand, what they do when they repair dugout areas, they put sand down.
Procedure penalty coming up against Denver.
I see the flag, it's way over here on the sideline.
And the Broncos are upset, Elway along with Dave Sutter, the left tackle, are protesting.
Illegal kick, number 70, five yards, third down.
Illegal shift, called on Dave Sutter, the left tackle.
Now that's an interesting call because Sutter was not in a three-point stance.
He didn't have his hand down on the line.
He was standing up, he did move, but that movement didn't draw anybody offside, but they called that an illegal shift.
Penalty cost the Broncos a first down.
Instead of having a first down, it'll be third and seven from the 33.
Vance Johnson is wide to the right.
Steve Watson put out to the left side.
Shotgun for Elway.
Back he goes, getting some pressure, hurries a pass over the middle of his incomplete midfield.
Reggie Camp dropped John Elway in the backfield just as he got rid of it.
He was trying to hit Gerald Willehyde, but there was no way he could complete that pass.
Now they had a twist on up in the middle where the linemen exchanged responsibilities.
The two tackles came inside and Camp came around them on a twist.
And Elway was looking right down the face of Reggie Camp.
Boy, he just barely got that ball off before.
And when he got hit, he got hit and probably flew back about five yards after the contact.
Mike Horan is in the front, playing the leading seven-and-nothing with a minute 44 remaining in the first quarter.
Gerald McNeil standing at the round 25, bouncing up and down, trying to stay warm, wearing gloves on both hands.
Horan takes the snap, gets it away.
Another good kick, a driving spiral taken by McNeil at the 20, running to his right across the 25, 30, 35, and trips up at the 37.
He fumbles the football, and let's see who's got it.
It's like the Browns have recovered, and they have.
Horan doing another magnificent job, a 47-yard kick into the wind.
Oh, the low driving kick is the kind of kick that you want to return.
And as Gerald McNeil, just as exuberant to get in there, he dove and just about lost the ball.
And we've got a timeout with a minute 33 remaining in the first quarter.
The Cleveland Browns leading the Denver Broncos, seven-and-nothing.
Bartender. Hey, come on, that's on the nice side.
Serve it up, Coldwell's in the heart of the nitty-gritty city.
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Yeah, it's all a rock and roll.
A light beer, please.
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All light beers are the same.
Contrary, amigo. Bud Light's the light beer with the first name and taste.
Okay, Bud Light then.
By request.
Bud Light.
Ask for Bud Light, because everything else is just a light.
Bartender, another Bud Light.
Hey, I'm out of here, but take it away, something to serve.
Hey, Friday night, day and night, me and the Brooklyners, giving Bud Light.
And I have a book, St. Louis, Missouri.
Now, Proctor with Dave Rowe back in Cleveland with the Browns lead seven-and-nothing,
and this is the NFL on NBC.
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Now Proctor with Dave Rowe back in Cleveland Stadium with the Browns lead the Broncos seven-and-nothing
in this AFC championship game with a minute 33 remaining in the first quarter.
And the Browns moving left or right to begin this drive from the 36-yard line.
Bernie Kozar is from the state of Ohio. He's from Boardman, Ohio and was the 1981 High School Player of the Year here.
On the handoff to Kevin Mack running to his right and he's stacked up at the 39-yard line
by 14-year veteran Tom Jackson of the Denver Broncos.
Now that is the set play that I would use if I was Bernie Kozar or the Cleveland Browns.
Give that ball to Kevin Mack. See if they can pick up as long as they can pick up three or four yards on that first down.
Keep the ball on the ground. Control it on the ground and use that pass when it's opportunistic to pick up that wide receiver.
But control this game via the ground.
Slatter and Brennan split wide to the left.
Herman Fondo is in the backfield now along with Kevin Mack.
Second down at seven from the 40. Kozar with play action.
Back to throw, getting pressure and he throws it. It's picked off by Ricky Hundley of Denver.
The big linebacker breaks the tackle, rumbles across the 40 and is brought down at the 35-yard line of Cleveland.
Rulon Jones was right in Bernie Kozar's face. There's a good example of exactly what I'm saying.
You've got second down. You've just picked up four yards on the run.
What did you do? Drop back and go to the pass. It's kind of crazy.
You know, the weather is a factor here. You don't force things.
And that time he forced the ball. He threw it into coverage.
It looked as if it was intended right for Ricky Hundley. He was right in the right position.
And this is what Denver has done so effectively all season.
They have turned the ball over. They have gotten those turnovers.
And they've got 30 percent of their points are scored by turnover.
Kozar was intercepted only ten times during the regular season.
He threw two interceptions on consecutive passes last week against the Jets.
Gerald Rulhide is nailed in the Denver backfield by Kip Banks.
He got to him before he could get out on the starting blocks and drop them for a four-yard loss.
Great play.
Now, differently out for Denver, they know they can't run the ball and run it consistently against the Cleveland defense.
Cleveland's got too much strength in the front seven players.
So they're going to have to pass the ball.
Plus, they've got a quarterback to sit back there and he can take you to death if he has the time.
So I would look for them to go for the pass in this situation.
The pass-rushing special with Sam Clancy, a 260-pounder from Pipps, is in the game now for Cleveland.
Second and 14. Back goes Elway, getting some pressure.
And he swings it out of the backfield to Sandy Winder, and he's stopped.
At the 47-yard line.
He's got the 43-yard line by Kip Banks.
He's had a great first quarter, and that will bring the first period to an end here in Cleveland.
The end of the first quarter in this AFC championship game.
It's the Cleveland Braves 7 and the Denver Broncos nothing.
This is Maury Levy, editor of Video Review Magazine, and we're here with Don Kobus of Samsung Electronics.
Where are things headed in general now?
We keep hearing so much about the yen versus the dollar, and how does that affect the won
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Mel Proctor with Dave Rowe back at Cleveland Stadium where the Browns lead the Denver Rockos 7-0 to begin the second quarter.
The Browns enter this game on a roll.
They've won six in a row, nine in the last ten, and twelve in the last fourteen.
The Broncos, on the other hand, have gone two and two over the last four games.
And over the last nine games, they've been a familiar pattern.
Win one, lose one, win one, lose one.
And they have not won consecutive games since the eighth and ninth weeks of the regular season.
And if that holds true, of course, today they would be up for a losing choice today.
Bronco coach Dan Reeves said he felt it was important to score first here to silence this big crowd.
But the Browns got on the board first.
Third and 16th for the Denver Broncos, the Cleveland 42-yard line.
John Elway from the shotgun with four wide receivers being chased, running to his right, stopped, being chased again, breaks the tackle.
Now firing across the grain on the run.
It's fluttering in the wind and the pass is caught at the 35-yard line by Vance Johnson, who had to run about 15 yards coming back to the ball to catch it.
That was an amazing play by Vance Johnson and by John Elway.
Picture this, Vance. He's rolling to his right.
Coming, he's almost out of bounds. He avoids two tackles.
At the last second he sees Vance Johnson all the way across the field.
He throws about 50 yards.
Now we're having a few words on the field right now.
General Willehyde is getting into it with hand prediction of Cleveland.
But he threw that ball, probably just quickly flipped it about 50 yards across the field.
Probably about 40 yards across the field.
He said Vance Johnson had to come back 15 yards to catch it.
Elway ran 30, Johnson ran 15, and the total yardage gained is seven yards.
That would be 4,000.
Four from 10.
He's on the 36.
Again, the shotgun.
Now Elway fronted out of this position last week.
He's going to do it again.
Quick kick by Elway.
The ball lands at the 15. Takes a Cleveland bounce heading toward the sidelines and is out of bounds at the 16-yard line.
That's what he did last week. He sets up in a shotgun formation.
Just before the snap, he takes about three steps back, takes the ball, and just punches it over the head.
This week it worked. They're inside the 20.
And we've got a time out with Cleveland leading Denver 7-0 in 13-55, remaining in the second quarter.
Next.
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Sports question. What TV commentator and ex-RAM played in 11 Pro Bowl games?
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The Cleveland Browns lead the Denver Broncos 7-0.
Cleveland's scoring at a 5-yard pass from Bernie Kozar to Herman Fontenot at the 7-18 mark of the first quarter.
Cleveland now will start this drive from this 17-yard line.
Difficult to get a reading on the wind. It's swirls. It changes directions.
It's blowing hard no matter which way it's blowing.
Making it very difficult for both quarterbacks.
Kozar waiting the snap from Setter.
Turns and hands to Kevin Mack running to his left.
And he is wrestled down near the 18-yard line by Ken Woodard.
And I'm sure that when Bernie Kozar in his young, inexperienced position went to the sideline, Marty Schottenheimer said,
Hey listen, we're moving the ball on the ground.
Be able to just keep it on the ground.
As long as we pick up 3, 4, 5 yards on first down, it brings up second and 4.
Run it again.
Kevin Mack is carried 10 times for 37 yards. It's second and 7 for the Browns.
At the 19-yard line.
Brennan is wide to the right.
Back goes Kozar. Good protection. Looks to the right.
Throws the pass and caught by Brennan who dances out of bounds.
At the 27-yard line.
Brian Brennan compared to Steve Largen at Seattle. Neither has great speed.
Both run precise pass routes. Have good hands.
Possession receiver. And he gives the Browns a first down.
Oh, he has very soft hands. He looks the ball in very, very well when he catches the ball.
And that's a trademark that Largen has done for so many years.
He looks the ball all the way into his hands.
Never does he make that mistake trying to run before he catches the ball.
Ozzie Newsom, puts out wide to the right.
Along with Reggie Langhorn, Webster Slaughter.
To the near side along with Herman Fontenot.
Kozar with a straight drop. Again with time.
Pumps. Looks over the middle. Lofts the pass.
It's picked off by Jim Ryan of Denver.
Down the far sideline to the 30. 25, 20, 15, 10.
Knocked out of bounds at the 8-yard line.
Cody Risen knocked him out of bounds.
And he would have scored for the Denver Broncos.
And this stuns this crowd of 80,000 here.
Kozar's just making a couple mistakes.
That time he was under a lot of pressure.
The Broncos know that he's not a real mobile quarterback.
So they're trying to get pressure up the cut in his face.
Kozar brought the ball down. Looked like he was going to run.
Last second he just flipped it out there.
Ryan was standing right in front of his receiver.
Took the ball, put it under his arm, and ran down the sideline.
Ryan did not have an interception during the regular season.
He's an 8-year veteran from William & Mary who began his Denver career on a special team.
First and goal to go for the Broncos.
Following an interception by Jim Ryan.
Cleveland leads 7-0.
Elway stays on the ground with a handoff.
The Stanley Winder is slipping and sliding down to the 7-yard line.
A gain of two as Chip Banks makes the stop for the Cleveland Browns.
Now anytime you have a mobile quarterback like a John Elway who has the rushing yardage that he has,
you always have to be very aware that he can run the bootleg.
That time if he pulls that ball back out of the running back's belly and takes it around the side,
he walks into the end zone.
They have coaches high atop this stadium that see those type of things,
and they're picking out those plays for him continually.
Second and goal to go for the 7s.
Steve Watson's foot thought to the right along with Mark Jackson.
Will Hyde and Winder in the eye formation.
Elway with a fake to Winder rolling to his right.
Byers on the run to pass his cut.
By Fannie Winder driven out of bounds at about the 2-yard line.
Knocked out by Henford Dixon.
Getting back to Kozars interceptions.
He's already been intercepted twice.
He had the best interception ratio in the NFL this year.
He was intercepted only 10 times in over 500 pass attempts.
So it's rare that he throws two and he threw two last week and they still beat the Jets.
Well he made two critical mistakes in that first half, well so far in the first half.
He made two poor choices.
He tried to force the ball into great coverage.
And Denver is known as an opportunistic defense.
They react very quickly to the ball.
I talked earlier about they don't have that great side.
They just have that great ability to react quickly to the ball.
And it looks like the Broncos will call a timeout with 12-17.
Remaining in the second quarter here in Cleveland, the Browns lead the Broncos 7-0.
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Denver Broncos on the move facing a third and goal to go situation at the two yard line.
Cleveland leading seven and nothing.
Looks like the Broncos will be running against four or five man front.
Cleveland is down there in the end zone and they're getting the doghouse.
They're getting the dog yard. Whatever you want to call them. The dog area.
You can see the dog bones lying in the end zone.
Yeah, they're throwing them out of the end zone. They're so close to the field.
Four man front for the Cleveland Brown.
Bellwey from the shotgun. Third and goal.
The inside handoff is Steve Sewell running to his left trying to turn the corner.
Down the far sideline and knocked out a bounce short of a touchdown.
Knocked out by Ray Ellis at the one yard line.
Sewell who has four or five speed turned the corner and was driven out of bounds.
A hard hit by Ellis and Denver will have to settle for a field goal attempt by Rich Carlin.
What Sewell did that time was he out ran his blockers. He tried to get out wide.
His blockers were blocking inside. He just ran right on by his blockers.
He's got that great acceleration. He thought he could get to the corner and he came up short.
I think if he had gotten behind that wall of blockers, the two guards, I think he would have gone in for a touchdown.
This will be a 19 yard field goal attempt by Rich Carlin.
As Jerry Kubiak holding for him, the ball is spotted down and Carlin's kick is good.
But Denver, I'm sure unhappy at having to settle for a field goal.
Carlin leaves the field clapping his hands. He'll settle for three points.
And with 12.07 remaining in the second quarter, it's now Cleveland's seventh and Denver's three.
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There are dog bones all over the field. In fact, they're enough to feed my Airedale for a year.
This is the NFL on NBC.
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The Cleveland Browns lead the Denver Broncos 7 to 3. Denver picked off a pass.
Jim Ryan intercepting Bernie Kozar. Denver drove down the one yard line with the Browns held.
The Broncos had to settle for a field goal by Rich Carlos and it's now 7 to 3 Cleveland.
Getting back to those dog bones.
We'll see a run on dog bones at the stores here in Cleveland.
It's unbelievable how many there are lying in the end zone.
Well, they started this dog thing. They said we're going to be after you like a pack of dogs.
And their defense has played that way. And boy, this town has reacted to that.
Unbelievable.
Here's Carlos kickoff. He hooks it heading toward the far sideline.
Gerald McNeil takes it to 8 straight ahead of the 10. Cuts back at a 15, 20, 25, 30.
Off to the 35 yard line, still driving. And finally, gang tackle and drop at the 37.
Rick Dennison was the first Bronco to get to him.
But a fine run back by Gerald McNeil who had a 100 yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Pittsburgh this year.
Now, doesn't he know you're not allowed to run that fast up in there?
I'll tell you, he must have a tremendous amount of courage because he's running the ball up in there.
He's just flying up. He's not looking for it. He's looking for that seam.
And once he sees that seam, he just explodes up in there.
He has no fear whatsoever of being hurt or anything. Just get upfield as far as you can get.
Brown's ball, first down at the 37 yard line following that fine run back by McNeil.
Backs in the I-formation, Biner and Kevin Mack.
Bernie Kozler on the handoff to Mack. Bounces to the outside, running to his left.
Bumbles the football and the Broncos indicate they've got it.
In fact, it is picked up by Ken Woodard heading toward the end zone.
To the 15, to the 10, to the 5, and he's into the end zone.
The play though may have been blown dead. See if they bring it back.
Oh boy, Roulant Jones ran in there and actually grabbed a referee and pulled him back and said,
wait a minute, but here's Chuck Averlein.
The ball was stumbled, was recovered by Denver. He's down by contact.
Denver's ball, first and 10.
It is Denver's ball, but no touchdown.
It was recovered by one of the Broncos who was then hit by one of the Browns.
And then after that took place, Woodard picked up the ball and ran it in for what he thought was a touchdown.
But they'll bring it back and Denver will have the ball at the Cleveland 36.
Well, they have the instant replay to review it and they may review it, but I didn't see any contact on the play.
The ball kind of squirted out two or three times.
And I did not see the contact on the play.
Of course, they have the instant replay here in this championship game as they do in all the NFL games.
And they may go ahead and review it. But the ball came out as soon as he got hit.
As soon as he took the handoff. It's so important where placement is.
The ball was bobbled. It never got to his stomach where he takes the ball.
They picked it up and I just didn't see any contact at all.
Well, Woodard picked it up, rolled over and got to his feet.
He kind of collided with one of the Browns as he was in the process of picking the ball up.
But the Browns player never really tackled it.
You know, Mel, that instant replay that I think we're having a ruling now.
After the replay, look.
The ball was stumbled. Recovered by Denver.
Down by contact. First ball, first and Denver.
So the play stands.
I was going to make just a quick mention.
There were 374 instant replay viewings this year in the NFL.
There were only 38 decisions to reverse the referee's call.
First down for the Broncos is the Cleveland 37-yard line.
Steve Sewell was in the backfield along with Gerald Wilhite.
Elway on a fake reverse now straightens up the throw.
Wants to go deep. Can't find a man open.
Running across the 40. 35, 30, 25, 20, 15, 10, 5 and out of bounds at about the 3-yard line.
They faked a reverse. Elway wanted to throw deep.
Couldn't find anyone and nearly scrambled for a touchdown.
He's out of bounds at the 3.
That's what he does so well.
Quite a lot of questions this week after he severely sprained his ankle.
And what does he do? He runs such a long distance.
But I think Gerald Wilhite might have gotten hurt on the play.
He hurt his shoulder last week.
Had a slight separation. He's in obvious pain on the far sideline.
So Elway, who ran for a touchdown last week against New England,
runs it down to the 3-yard line and will be first and goal to go.
And Wilhite is quite obviously in a lot of pain as he leaves the field.
The Broncos now have Dean Lang in the backfield replacing Wilhite.
They shift into the I-formation. First and goal to go from the 3.
Double tight end.
Hand off straight ahead is Lang who's hit and stopped short of the end zone.
Dean Lang who had a big game last week against the Patriots after Wilhite got hurt.
He carried 11 times for 44 yards against New England.
I was surprised to see Wilhite start after suffering a shoulder separation last week.
But he came back and started this game obviously in a lot of pain.
And he is on the sideline. I don't think we'll see him again unless something happens to Dean Lang.
Second down, goal to go at the 1-yard line.
Dean Sewell lines up with a wingback on the right side.
Elway on the handoff to Linder over the top and he can't get into the end zone.
Stacked up in the middle of that Cleveland defensive line.
And they are howling in the dog pound again.
Well they tried to go right over top of the middle.
The linebackers, what you do in that defense, you try to get your line and try to get penetration.
Make a pile. Then the back tries to jump over top of the pile.
And those linebackers are sitting back there.
Chip Banks and Matthews, Greggs and Johnson.
They are sitting back there waiting to see where the guy tries to jump.
And then they just smash into him.
I would look probably Denver's going to try to go wide on this play because they have been unsuccessful up the middle.
On their last drive they had to settle for a field goal.
A third and goal to go from the 1-yard line.
Sewell has a wingback on the left side.
He comes in motion.
Elway with a play action fake looking into the end zone in trouble.
He throws as he is hit and it is incomplete.
He tried to hit Steve Sewell in the end zone but Clay Matthews was raped all over Elway as he threw the pass.
And it will bring up a forced out situation.
And let's see what Dan Rees will do here.
Well he almost has to go for a touchdown in this situation.
Three points is not going to help you. You will still be down.
If he doesn't make the touchdown he at least has Cleveland backed up to their own 1-yard line.
I think he is going to go for it.
Oh boy and here comes Wilhite. Can you imagine that? That tells you the importance of a game.
Gerald Wilhite is back in the game.
He was the Broncos leading receiver this year with 64 catches.
Fourth down, goal to go from the 1. It's a big crowd of over 80,000.
Reacts to John Elway. Sewell is in motion.
Elway takes the snap on the pitch to Wilhite running right.
Dives into the end zone for a touchdown.
What a play by Wilhite.
He saw that end zone as just as he planted that right foot he started to leap.
He was hit in mid-air by Chris Rockins.
He just kind of twisted his way and when he came down he had the ball stretched out.
And he came down in the end zone for a touchdown for the Denver Broncos.
Wilhite who scored a touchdown during the regular season takes it in from 1-yard out.
Denver has a lead 9-7 as Rich Carlos is back in the kick.
With Gary Kubiak holding, Keith Bishop will center it.
The Broncos regard him as the best kick snapper in the NFL.
Kubiak spots it down and Carlos' kick is good.
So it's 10-36 remaining in the second quarter.
The Broncos have taken the lead 10-7.
Well one of the things Dan Rees said is we've got to get this crowd out of the game.
We've got to score early.
They've scored on two turnovers, two big turnovers by Bernie Kozar.
One of course, one was a bubble which wasn't actually his fault but yet he did not get the ball into the biners belly in a proper position.
But two big turnovers result in 10 points and they have stunned the Denver Broncos.
The crowd is now quiet.
Coming up at halftime, Stan Martin will be along to update you on all sports.
Stan will be talking to Don Crickie and Bob Crumpey who are standing by a giant stadium for the Redskins' Giants game, the NFC Championship.
As part of today's doubleheader here on NBC Radio.
Stan will also be chatting with Redskins' free safety Curtis Jordan.
All coming up at halftime right here on the NFL on NBC.
The Broncos drove 37 yards in five plays.
Will Heit going over from one yard out and it's now Denver 10 and Cleveland 7.
McNeil, Fontenot, drops back deep for the Cleveland Browns along with Reggie Langhorn.
The Browns regard their special teams as the best in the NFL.
The special teams coach is Bill Cower and they really take great pride in their special teams.
With McNeil, a great runback man on both punts and kickoff.
They do an outstanding job on coverage.
They're third in the NFL on punt coverage.
They do have a very, very effective feel of special teams.
Special teams of course is a very vital part of this game.
Here's a kickoff by Rich Carlos, a low line drive kick.
McNeil will take it on the fly at the 6th across the 10 to the 15, 20, 25.
After the 30 to the 32 yard line.
Another good runback by the Ice Cube.
Gerald McNeil, Joey Hackett made the stop for the Denver Broncos.
McNeil is giving Cleveland excellent field position.
Well the one thing you want to do now if you're Bernie Cotar is you don't want to panic.
You've had a lot of things go wrong.
He throws two interceptions, they fumbled the ball once, but they're not in a bad position.
They are still playing good solid football and defense.
They have to get their offense cranked up and he has to make everyone in that position.
He has to make everyone in that huddle believe that he's the leader of this team.
First down for Cleveland at the 31 yard line.
Bondino and Langhorn go wide to the right.
Webster Slaughter is wide to the left.
Cotar will throw on first down.
He swings it out of the backfield to Kevin Mack who gets a block at the 30,
across the 35 and the 40 and he's got a first down out to the 42 yard line.
Mike Harden, the right quarterback, made the stop.
He was named the Broncos most valuable defensive player and one of the Broncos is very slow to get up.
That's Jim Ryan who intercepted a pass earlier in this half.
Well the one thing that the Broncos do believe is the magic of Bernie Cotar and that's a good, safe play.
It's a heady play.
Of course he plays a call by the coaching staff.
What they want to do is get that confidence back with him.
Allow him to complete two or three passes, get some success.
It's a swing pass out of the backfield.
It's a safe pass.
If it's incomplete, it's going to fall incomplete.
There's a chance or a risk of it being intercepted.
So if the ball falls, he doesn't lose anything.
If Mack catches it like he did, he picks up 10 yards in the first down.
Safe, safe play.
Bernie Cotar who led the University of Miami to a national championship in 1983.
He's 12 days younger than this year's Heisman Trophy winner Vinnie Tessiverdi.
And we'll take a break with the Denver Broncos leading the Cleveland Browns 10 to 7.
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The injured Denver linebacker Jim Ryan is coming off the field.
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First and 10 for the Cleveland Browns at the 43 as Bernie Kozar lost the pass.
And on the right flat complete during his final and he stopped in his tracks at the 46 yard line.
Gain of three on the play as Dennis Smith made the tackle.
Darren Como, a five-year runner from Arizona State, is the place he injured Jim Ryan at linebacker for the Denver Broncos.
Como was the most valuable player on the special teams this year for the Bronx.
It'll be second and sixth at the 47 of Cleveland.
Denver leading 10-7 with 939 remaining in the first half.
Webster Slaughter, a rookie from San Diego State, puts out wide to the left.
They flip Biner and Reggie Langhorn wide to the right.
Kevin Mack is the lone setback.
Bernie Kozar backpedals, looks left, fires the Mack at the 40, gets a block across the 45-50.
And deep in the Denver territory at the 45 yard line, Rulan Jones made the tackle.
What a great block by Paul Farron to come out there.
It's a swing pass out of there.
It's like a flip screen, they call it, where the back kind of slips out of the backfield.
Then your linemen, they hit, they hold for about two seconds and they flow out to the field.
And Paul Farron just knocks the corner back just as he's about to make the corner to tackle.
He hits, excuse me, with Darren Como, he hits and springs Mack free.
Farron had been starting a left tackle.
He's moved to left guard with Ricky Bolden returning to action.
Bolden had been out of action for nine games of broken arms.
Kozar on the handoff to Mack, running right.
Two Broncos nail him at the 45 yard line.
Ricky Hundley was the first man to get to him.
He led the Broncos in tackles this year with 164.
Also got help from Darren Como.
And it'll be second and 10, no gain on the play.
Now you have to look for, to second down and 10 now.
They didn't make anything, so you're going to have to look for Bernie Kozar to probably go to the air again.
He has not been very successful.
Second down and 10 from the 45 yard line.
Bono is wide to the left.
And split out to the right side is Bronin.
Long count by Kozar.
Play action fake.
Back to throw going long down field and it's incomplete at the 20 yard line.
And Tennes for Webster's slaughter, but Randy Robbins broke up the pass.
As a defensive team you play strategy, you play statistics.
Your strategy is dictated on the statistics of your opponent.
They know that Bernie Kozar, when he gets in that second down and 10 yards,
there's very little chance that he's going to run the ball.
So they were putting a hard pass rush.
Just throwing all caution to the wind on the run.
They're guarding in the secondary and they get right with Denver Broncos, that is.
And the term throwing caution to the wind certainly fits today.
The wind is a factor.
That's for sure.
Kozar has completed six of 14 passes for 85 yards in a touchdown, but he's been intercepted twice.
He's back to throw on third and 10.
Guns it over the middle and the pass is caught.
Nope, incomplete.
Trying to hit Webster's slaughter, got his hands on it, but couldn't hold it.
And he gets up limping.
He took a good stick from Dennis Smith.
One of the things that Denver does so well is to react in the secondary.
They're too safe.
DeFauldi and Smith are standing back there and they're looking at Kozar's eyes.
They're reacting to that ball quickly.
And they'd like to take him the head off of Mr. Webster's slaughter when he came on that crossing pattern.
That's a tough pass to catch.
Jeff Gossett, who had 21 points inside the 20-yard line, is back to kick for Cleveland.
Gerald Willheit is standing at the Denver 10.
Gossett kicks it straight up.
It hangs up in the wind.
Willheit will take it and a fair catch at the 11-yard line.
So again, poor field position for the Denver Broncos.
That time they used the wind.
Yes they did.
He planted the ball very, very high.
The coverage was down there.
As soon as they saw the fair catch signal, they went beyond him to stop it in case he let the ball bounce.
He caught it on a 10-yard line.
So Mr. Gossett, instead of having 21 now, has 22 inside the 20-yard line.
That's a real test of a kicker to get that ball down inside the 20-yard line with no return.
Denver moving left or right from the Broncos.
They lead 10-7.
Steve Watson is wide to the right.
Mark Jackson is wide to the left.
Winder is a lone setback.
Orson Mobley, the tie-in is in motion.
The handoff is standing.
Winder running off left tackle and he's after the 13-yard line.
Where Bob Golick, the veteran nose tackle from Notre Dame, brings him down.
Golick is a native of Ohio.
He's from Euclid, Ohio.
Speaking of Ohio, Bronco linebacker Tom Jackson is from Cleveland.
He played at John Adams High School here.
And he said he used to come out and watch the Browns play.
His daddy would bring him out to the stadium when he was 10 years old.
Second down at 7 from the 13-yard line.
Watson is wide right.
Jackson, the rookie from Purdue, is wide to the left.
Mobley on a wing right, goes in motion.
Elway on a delay.
Hansel Winder running to his left.
And he's hit it to 19.
It fights his way out to the 21-yard line.
Ray Ellis is the man who made the tackle for the Cleveland Browns.
If they were able to stop him without getting a first down,
I think he's going to be awfully close to the first down.
But if they're able to stop him without getting a first down,
then they'll get the ball in probably their best field position.
But it's going to be third down and very, very short.
You almost have to expect a running play.
But of course, with the arm of John Elway and his unpredictable,
he is very unpredictable back there.
You can never guess what he's going to do.
But the sure thing to do, third down and one, is to run the ball.
The Browns will go with a five-man front, five down linemen,
third down one, full house backfield for Denver.
Sewell is in motion out of the backfield.
Elway on the handoff to Winder, and he's got the first down.
Driving out to the 22-yard line where Chip Banks makes the stop.
I love to watch Elway when he does his play selection.
He has the ability to audible eyes on the line of scrimmage.
And so many times he takes that chance.
He's got just so much confidence.
Both these quarterbacks have great confidence.
But Elway's got that little bit more experience.
He's a little bit more secure in his position.
And he'll challenge the defense.
Bernie Kosar, he's learning to do that also.
Steve Watson and Mark Jacklin, good wide to the left.
Two tight ends in the game now for the Broncos.
First down at the 23-yard line.
Elway on the pitch to Sandy Winder, running to his left.
Trying to turn the corner, gives the man a stiff arm,
and he's out of bounds near the 25.
Clay Matthews and Chris Rockins chasing him out of bounds.
Matthews had a shot at him just as he turned the corner,
but he gave him a good stiff arm, managed to pick up a yard or so.
Well, he ran the ball a long way.
He must have run the ball 35 yards.
Unfortunately for the Broncos, he was running left to right,
so he was running just wide across the field.
Never got to the corner.
I don't think he made much over a yard.
No, it's about a yard, it's that.
I see he picked up anything.
It's going to be second down at 10.
5.25 remaining in the second quarter.
Denver leads 10-7, this AFC Championship game.
Mark Jackson is wide left.
Steve Watson is wide to the right.
Mobley is on a wing left.
A big tight end comes in motion.
Elway's back to throw.
He has time.
Fires to Mobley at the 20.
Tripped up at the 26-yard line.
Good hard tackle by Ray Ellis coming up to meet him.
What a tackle by Ray Ellis.
He had to come up.
He's taking Mobley, comes in motion.
And as he comes across, they snap the ball.
He kind of just filters out into the flat area.
Elway looks him off.
He's looking downfield, downfield.
The last second he finds Mobley.
Then it's a one-on-one tackle.
Ellis comes up, makes that great stick.
I don't know how Philadelphia ever gave up on him
and let him come to Cleveland for literally nothing.
They gave for him.
One of five former Eagles in a Cleveland uniform.
John Owens completed six of eight passes for 43 yards
from the shotgun on third and five.
Back he goes.
Looks over the middle.
Nothing there.
Retreats.
The Luke Reggie camp steps up.
Guns are passed downfield.
And it's dropped at the 45-yard line.
Right through the hands of Mark Jackson.
Frank Minfield, who's Menafield, is coming up from behind him.
I'm sure you can hear him coming.
That's probably why he dropped it.
Yes, and it was a high pass.
When you're a wide receiver and you run that 16, 17-yard curl
pattern, the one thing you don't want to do is have that ball
thrown high.
Because if it's thrown high, you know that defensive back is going
to come up and smash you.
And you're stretched out there.
You're much more vulnerable to the hit.
You want it low, right into the belly where you don't have to
jump up.
Mike Horan is in the kick for the Denver Broncos.
Gerald McNeil, a return to punt, 84 yards for a touchdown against
Detroit, is standing back at the Cleveland 29.
Four and a half remaining in the second quarter.
Denver with a 10-7 lead.
Horan feels the snap, gets the kick away.
A wobbly spiral headed toward the far sideline, taken by McNeil
at the 40, running to his right to the 45, and dragged down near
midfield at the 48-yard line of Denver.
And again, excellent field position for the Cleveland Browns.
I saw a referee take a flag out of his hand and wave it in one of
the Denver Broncos' faces.
Maybe that's a warning.
I don't know.
He didn't throw the flag.
He just kind of waved it in his face, and then he just kind of
kept it in his hand.
Now they're talking about it.
Well, what do you have to say, Chuck?
What happened down there?
Here's Chuck Eberlein.
Invalid fair catch signal by the receivers, five yards from the
spot, first down.
Invalid fair catch signal by Gerald McNeil.
Well, I saw that, and I wondered whether that was a fair catch.
It's the first thing I saw.
He kind of put his hand up and quickly brought it down.
Now, the fair catch signal, you have to put your hand up, and you
have to wave left to right several times to indicate it.
He just kind of put his hand up.
It looked as if he was going to signal and then decided not to.
The referee saw that and called a five-yard penalty.
So instead of having the ball at the Bronco 48, Cleveland will
begin this drive from their own 35.
It'll be first and 10 for the Browns.
Denver leads 10 to 7.
Webster Slaughter is wide to the left.
Reggie Langhorn is wide to the right.
Bernie Kozar will throw on first down.
He fires underneath to Herman Fontenot.
He makes the catch at the 27-yard line, gets back up.
Now, they call this an incompletion.
Well, he made the catch, but there's a penalty marker down.
That penalty flag was thrown way far away from the play.
It was thrown way downfield.
It looked as if it was thrown against Mike Harden, who was at
the Broncos, and I couldn't see exactly who was down there with
him, but it was thrown probably 20 yards from where the pass was
thrown.
There is no foul on the play.
The ball was tipped by the defense.
Second down.
No foul on the play because the ball was tipped by the defense.
Yes, once the ball is tipped by a defensive player, you can't have
pass interference.
That's what the play was called.
Interesting call.
We've had a lot of interesting calls today so far in this game.
Pass was incomplete, so it'll be second down and 10.
Brian Brennan is in the game now.
He puts out wide to the right.
Fontenot and Webster Slaughter wide to the left.
Kevin Mack is the lone setback.
Bernie Kozar takes the snap, hands to Mack, lowers his head,
drives straight ahead, and he runs into Jim Ryan, who's back in
the game for the Broncos, and he brings him down to 38-yard line.
Ryan, along with Dennis Smith on the stop.
It's beginning to snow once again.
It's almost like there's someone upstairs with a switch that
decides, okay, it's time for some more snow.
Then they shut it off for a while.
Well, if you're in Cleveland, the guy doesn't live in Cleveland if
he's controlling the snow because when Cleveland's on offense,
you don't want the snow.
Chuck Heberling is making an announcement, but we can't hear it.
Apparently having some problems with his microphone.
Well, I think they may be having some problems with the clock.
So it's third and seven for Cleveland from the Brown 38-yard line,
3.39 left in the first half.
Kozar drops back inside the 30.
He's firing long downfield for Clarence Weathers.
He's got him to 30, 25, and down to the 20-yard line.
He's the big play man for the Cleveland Browns.
Last year he averaged 28 yards a cat, tops in the NFL.
He doesn't catch many, but when he does, they're normally for
big games and that's a 42-yard pick up.
Now I wish our fans could have seen the hesitancy that he had,
that Kozar had on that play.
He saw Weathers come off the line of scrimmage.
The last second he brought the ball back down.
He decided he was going to throw it, then he brought it back down.
Then all of a sudden he saw Weathers break free, and the ball
was thrown with just a beautiful touch.
The ball was laid right into Weathers' outstretched hand.
He got behind Dennis Smith on the play.
First down for Cleveland at the Denver 20.
Fontenot and Mack are split at the backfield behind Bernie Kozar.
Kozar will throw again, swings it out of the backfield on the left side
to Fontenot with a blocker ahead of him across the 20.
Heading for the near sidelines, and he's driven out of bounds
at the 16-yard line.
Mike Harden knocked him out of bounds.
Herman Fontenot, to your veteran from LSU, who was signed as a
free agent on the recommendation of LSU coach Bill Arnsperger
and Kurt Schottenheimer, who's Cleveland coach Marty Schottenheimer's
younger brother.
At that time he was an assistant in LSU.
He's now at Notre Dame.
Well, I tell you, I am impressed with Bernie Kozar.
He's been rattled.
He's done two interceptions, and he takes a chance on that pass.
He's got ice water in his veins today.
He's growing with a lot of confidence.
He's a gutsy big play quarterback.
Second down and five from the 15-yard line.
Kozar with a short drop, looks right, fires, and it's caught by Fontenot.
Tries to break a tackle, and he's dropped at the seven-yard line.
It'll be first and goal to go for the Cleveland Browns.
Dennis Smith made the tackle on him.
Now these fans are coming alive here.
I can feel this booth shaking.
This is quite an old stadium, and this booth is shaking.
2-0-9 remaining in the first half.
Denver leads 10-7, but the Browns are threatening again.
Fontenot's got an outstanding first half.
Five receptions for 54 yards and a touchdown.
And now we've got the two-minute warning.
So that's the two-minute warning, but there'll be no warning when the lights go out.
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Mel Proctor with Dave Rowe back in Cleveland.
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First and goal to go for the Cleveland Browns at the seven-yard line, moving right to left.
Bernie Kozar mixing his plays nicely in his first half, although he was intercepted twice, forced a couple of passes.
But aside from that, it's been a very good play call.
Well, they're, they've capitalized on his ability to throw that ball. He threw that ball just fantastically to Clarence Weathers.
That was a very impressive throw. Now they're down on the seven-yard line.
The one thing they don't want to do in this situation is have to settle for a field goal. That's the last thing they want to do.
This is the end zone where Mark Mosley missed that big field goal last week and almost blew the playoff.
First and goal to go for the Cleveland Browns, moving right to left at the Denver Seven.
Bernie Kozar, who's right to require the Buffalo Bills for four draft picks.
They're up watching the Browns play. Ryan Seyff was one of his heroes, former Brown quarterback.
Kozar waiting the snap from Mike Bab.
On first and goal to go at the seven-yard line, Mack is the lone setback.
Reggie Langhorn is in motion. The handoff to Mack, running to his right.
And he's stopped by three Broncos at the seven-yard line. The ball popped loose, but the play had been blown dead.
Ken Woodard was the first Bronco to get to him.
Now what you have to do in this situation, you have to fool the defense.
The defense is secondary, doesn't have to drop very deep because they're in the end zone.
So their drops are going to be short.
So what you've got to do is you've got to fool them with a pass pattern.
He'll pick play in basketball, even though you can't pick in football.
You have to do some type of a crossing pattern where you get somebody free.
Or you have to do the quick plant in the middle where you just bust somebody up in there before the defense can make their adjustments on the rush.
Ernest Beiner and Webster Slaughter's foot wide to the left.
Clarence Weathers is back in. He's put out to the right side.
Kozar on the handoff to Mack straight ahead, driving inside the five down at the two-yard line.
Gretchen Gilbert made the tackle for the Denver Broncos, but it looked like Denver was anticipating a pass and said they've got to run.
Absolutely. That's how you fool them. Everybody was thinking pass in that situation.
He runs back, hands the ball on a late draw, and he just runs up the middle.
That's what I mean when I say you have to fool them. And the clock is ticking down.
Cleveland wants to have no time on the clock when they get this ball if they score.
Forty-five seconds left in the half. Two tight ends in the game now for Cleveland.
Travis Tucker and Harry Holt, a third and goal to go from the two-yard line.
Beiner and Mack are the running backs.
Play action fake by Kozar, running to his right, being chased by Jim Ryan, throws on the run and throws it down the turf at the one-yard line.
The Broncos are screaming intentional grounding, but I don't see a flag.
Well, I don't know. I thought I saw a flag on the sideline, but it may be a piece of paper.
But intentional grounding is called against Bernie Kozar, and he's furious.
As he runs up to the referee, Chuck Heverling begins to protest.
Well, he had someone in the end zone, and that's what he's yelling at.
He had someone in the end zone. He was running to his right. He took the ball.
And when he threw it, it looked like he just threw it into the ground.
But he had someone in the end zone. He didn't throw it far.
He was being chased by Simon Pletcher instead of throwing the ball clear out of the end zone.
For some reason, he threw it down at about the two.
That's the point. If he had taken the ball and thrown it out of the back of the end zone, it would never have been the intentional grounding.
But that really hurts Bernie Kozar. That's something that he's going to learn.
When you're in that situation, you throw the ball out of the back of the end zone. You don't throw it in the dirt.
Mark Mosley is in to attempt a 30-yard field goal.
He was 4-for-5 from this range during the regular season.
Mosley will kick the game winner last week and double overtime to give the Browns a victory.
While it's spotted down, Mosley's kick is on the way, and it is good.
And Mark Mosley connects from 30 yards out to tie the score at 10.
And with 20 seconds left in the first half, it's now Cleveland 10 and Denver 10.
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Mark Mosley's field goal is tied to score at 10 with 20 seconds remaining in the first half.
It's been quite a story for Mosley, who was selected the most valuable player in the NFL in 1982, the only kicker to be so honored.
Released earlier this year by the Washington Redskins, picked up by the Browns.
And he was the hero last week. He wore the goats horn for a while, though, after missing the field goal in the first overtime.
He would have won the game for Cleveland.
And I think he would like nothing better than to kick against the Washington Redskins this year.
And you know what that would mean? That would mean that they'd have to meet the Redskins in the Super Bowl.
That'd be quite a tribute to him and his long career.
Mosley said that he's had some phone conversations with the longtime Browns kicker Don Cockroft, who was here for 12 years.
He's a great kicker, but Cockroft told him, they only remember the kicks you miss.
Cockroft, in 1980, missed two field goals and an extra point in the game.
And he's more remembered for that and for the great kick he had in his career.
Absolutely. That was against the Raiders when they threw the last drive.
They had no confidence in them, and San Martino Decided to throw the ball.
Brian Slive, of course, threw the incomplete for the interception in the end zone, and the Raiders went on to the Super Bowl.
Ken Bell and Gene Lang are back deep for the Denver Broncos awaiting Mark Mosley's kickoff.
Bell, a rookie from Boston College on the near side, laying the veteran on the far side.
At 10, 10 time, this one is really heating up on a chilly afternoon in Cleveland.
Mosley's kick is a swift kick, rolling across the 40 fielded by one of the Bronco linemen, and he's tackled at the 41 yard line.
That was Mike Freeman, a guard, picking up the ball.
And Denver will have the ball with 16 seconds left.
Let's pause five seconds for station identification.
31 degrees and 104 on 67 WMAQ Radio, Chicago.
What do you do now after John Elway?
Well, hey, I don't think they should have done what they did right there.
They've got the, Denver's got the ball, and they're on 41 yard line.
If they get about 20 yards on a quick pass, they've got 16 seconds, they've got enough time out, they may get Carlos in field goal range.
Three wide receivers to the left side, Jackson, Johnson, and Watson for Denver.
Elway back to throw, with time stepping up in the pocket, guns it underneath to Clint Sampson, heading for the far sidelines, and he's out of bounds near midfield with 10 seconds left.
The Broncos have two timeouts remaining.
That time, Elway sent three wide receivers deep, brought Sampson across the field underneath, and he was wide open.
Now they have 10 seconds, so they have time to run a pass.
All they have to do is run some type of a pass where he can go down and call a quick timeout.
Now if you're Cleveland and he goes down and runs that curl, you might just not tackle him.
Let him get up, don't let him call timeout.
Rich Carlos has kicked a 51 yard field goal this year.
The way the wind is swirling and blowing today would be very difficult on a day like this.
Billy Bryant just called in and said, hey, we've got a dirty ball here, I want to change this.
So they're going to run a clean ball in from the sidelines.
Brian, the Broncos center, a 10-year veteran from Duke.
Elway from the shotgun, 10 seconds left in the first half, a 10-10 tie.
Back goes Elway, again with time, fires over the middle and it's incomplete at the 40-yard line.
Elway trying to hit Vance Johnson, but well covered by the Browns.
Now that compounds his problems because now he only has five seconds left now, he's almost have to throw the ball deep.
Either deep or a quick out pattern to pick up about eight to ten yards,
but there's just not enough time to throw a pass, complete it and get the clock stopped in five seconds.
Second down and ten from the Cleveland 49-yard line.
Steve Watson goes wide to the left, Mark Jackson is wide to the right, Vance Johnson in the flat left and Elway from the shotgun.
He drops back, firing toward the far sideline and throws it out of bounds.
Gerald Wilhite was the intended receiver, but that will bring the first half to an end.
The end of the first half before a sellout round of over 80,000 here at Cleveland Stadium.
The Broncos and the Browns are tied 10-10 in this AFC championship game.
This is Bob Golick of the Cleveland Browns with a special message for everyone in our radio audience.
Today we're at Health Hill Hospital in Cleveland.
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This is Sam Martin back in our NBC studios in New York.
We are at halftime of the AFC championship game with the score tied.
The Denver Broncos 10, the Cleveland Browns 10, and what has been certainly an interesting first half.
There were three turnovers in the first half, all done by Cleveland.
Denver was only able to take care or take advantage of two of them and we'll have a quick review.
To begin with, Cleveland marched 86 yards in the first scoring drive of the game.
Bernie Kozar hooking up with Herman Fontenot on the 14th play of this drive.
Back goes Kozar, flings it out of the backfield to Fontenot, breaks the tackle, and he is in for a touchdown!
The PAT was good. That put the Browns up 7-0, and that was the score after one period of play.
Denver, as we told you, took advantage of a couple of turnovers by the Cleveland Browns to begin with.
The Broncos intercepted Bernie Kozar but didn't cash in on that one.
They intercepted him a second time, drove deep into Brown territory.
Rich Carless kicked a 19-yard field goal. That made it Cleveland 7 and Denver 3.
And then, a big fumble on the ensuing possession by Cleveland.
Denver recovered, drove deep again, and this time took full advantage.
Fourth down, goal to goal from the 1. It's a big crowd of over 80,000.
Reacts to John Elway. Sewell is in motion.
Elway takes the snap on the pitch to Wilhite, running right, dives into the end zone for a touchdown.
And that one put Denver up ahead 10-7 at that point.
And right after on the ensuing kickoff, Cleveland got only its second offensive good drive of the first half underway,
drove deep into Denver territory.
Mark Mosley wound up by kicking a 29-yard field goal, and that's where we are at halftime with the score tied 10-10.
We'll kick it off to get the second half underway.
The Browns moving left to right. Cleveland wearing the white home uniforms with orange and brown trim.
The Broncos in the orange jersey, white pants, blue helmets, blue and white trim.
Gene Lang and Ken Bell are back deep, awaiting Mosley's kickoff.
Lang on the near side, Bell on the far side. The second half is underway from Cleveland Stadium.
A high short kick, fumbled by Bell with the 10. He picks it up and he smothers there at the 8-yard line.
D.D. Hoggard was all over him, and he gets up, pumping his arms, gesturing to the dog pound,
and they're howling and barking in that end of the end zone.
Oh, what a coverage. When he follows that ball, he barely has time to pick up that ball before Hoggard is right on top of him.
That was amazing how quickly he got down the field.
That was really surprising. I couldn't believe that he barely picked up the ball, turned around, and wham!
There he was, and he was smothered on the 8-yard line.
Denver has been flagged by a four-field position all afternoon. They'll begin this ride from the 8.
Gerald Willehyde in the backfield for Denver, along with Gene Lang on the delay.
The handoff is to Lang, who's hit and drop at the 9-yard line by Eddie Johnson.
Right now, if you're a Cleveland Browns fan, you want the Cleveland defense to hold him down there.
You know he's putting into a pretty good wind. He's not going to get a lot of distance.
They'll have great field positions if they can hold them in this down situation here.
Second down, about 8 yards to go, and they're on their own 10-yard line.
Orson-Mobly to 6'5", 256-pound tight end checks in, replacing Willehyde.
Second down, an 8 from the 10. Sammy Winder's not in there. Gene Lang is at running back.
Vance Johnson is wide to the left. He goes in motion.
John Elway drops back inside his 5-yard line. Fires over the middle, and wide open is Vance Johnson.
He's got it to 15 across the 20, heading for the near sideline, and he's out of bounds at the 24-yard line.
They stop by Scott Nicholas of Cleveland. That's a first down for the Broncos.
What a great call by Elway to find him coming across the field.
Vance Johnson is all the way on the right side of the field. He comes down about 5 to 7 yards,
and then starts across the field, and he loses his coverage. The other coverage goes deep.
He loses his coverage. He's running straight across the field. Elway picks him up for a big first down.
Vance Johnson has spent 5 weeks on injured reserve with a knee injury.
Back in action, he had a 48-yard touchdown reception last week's playoff game against New England.
First out for Denver at the 24. The handoff goes to Sammy Winder, who's back in there.
He drives off right tackle for a couple of yards.
And again, it's Eddie Johnson, a 6-year veteran from Louisville, making the snap.
Now, I was watching a play away from it a little bit.
Mark Seuss, Steve Watson, just got leveled by the defensive corner.
When he saw his run, he just leveled Steve Watson.
Watson got up, taking grass out of his face mask, and went over and talked to the referees,
and said, hey, I don't go for this. I'm a wide receiver.
Two great cornerbacks, Frank Minifield and Hanford Dixon, like to play bump and run.
They're outstanding in one-on-one coverage. Back goes Elway on second and sixth.
Steps up and guns it long for Watson, and he's got a flag thrown.
As Watson collided with Frank Minifield, who had him on one-on-one coverage.
And that's the thing that Watson did. He set that up with the last play.
If it, in fact, is against Frank Minifield, he set it up by going to the referee and said,
listen, he stuck me in the face, and they are going to call it against Frank Minifield.
It's going to be against Watson or on Watson against Minifield.
Looks like it's against the defense, against Minifield.
What a play. I watched Watson that play before, and he got leveled, and he went over and told the referee about it,
and so they come right back, Elway throws the ball.
He's there. Number 31.
That's an insurance against Frank Minifield.
That is something that Watson does so well. You know, one year he had 300 and some yards against him
in interference penalties that he drew on his defenders.
First down for the Broncos, the Denver 45-yard line.
Watson slips out wide to the left, and wide to the right is Vance Johnson.
Wilson Mobley is in tight-ended motion to hand off to Sammy Winder.
Hips stays on his feet, and it's stopped at the 46th, the gain of the yards.
Mike Johnson made the stop.
Johnson in his second year from Virginia Tech, right on the USFL with the Philadelphia Baltimore Stars.
Well, the continuing scoring out there at corner, that time Minifield, the Cleveland defensive back,
hits Watson in the face about three times. Watson goes back over and talks to the referee.
Yeah. I wonder if Elway could possibly come back. No, Watson's going to come over here on this side of the field.
Get away from Minifield.
No better there with Hanford Dixon covering him.
Right.
Minifield is against Vance Johnson on the far side.
Second and ninth in the 45, Elway with a deep drop being pressured, giving ground,
closes these hits, and sails it out of bounds into the block, goes Vance, and he got caught by Mike Johnson.
You hear the fans react here. They watch pass. They watch him grounding the ball.
Look at this.
Orson Mobley and Clay Matthews. Mobley ran up behind Matthews and bumped him,
and Matthews turned around and waved his hand as if to say, nanananana.
The only way to describe it on the radio.
That's exactly what it was.
He's got to wave his hand, just got to wave it right in his face.
It looked like he was saying, eh, eh, eh, eh.
What's this, a replay, a radio replay?
Radio instant replay, right.
Third down, ninth for Denver from the bus, 046, and a crowd of over 80,000 is howling.
Elway from the shotgun.
He's watching his emotions.
Elway backpedal sets up. Look, now dancing, running to his right, and he is shot at the 35 by Sam Tracy.
Elway had no way to go, and what do they do? They run down to the end zone, get the dog pound into it.
Boy, they're throwing those bones out there. They got bone smell all the way out to about the 15 yard line.
Clearly is incredible.
People wearing dog masks, their faces tainted up like dogs that get dog ears.
They said last week when they kicked that field goal that they literally had to get rakes out there and rake the field to get those dog bones off,
and I believe it, there are literally thousands of them down there.
On 4th and 20th, the 35, Mike Horan is in the punt.
Gerald McNeil pumping his legs, trying to get warm as he stands at the Cleveland 20.
He's had a big day. Good kick by Horan.
Low driving spiral, but that's the kind that'll run back, and it hits along the far sideline and goes out of bounds near the 20.
Mike McNeil wanted to steal that one, but he couldn't get to it in time. A 44 yard kick.
That was a driving kick, and that ball came off his foot. It was not very high, but it drove it deep and out of bounds.
So with 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter, the Broncos and the Browns are tied 10-10 at this AFC Championship game.
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News is directed.
Mel Proctor with Dave Rowe back at Cleveland Stadium, and this town has fallen in love with the Cleveland Browns.
They're hungry for a winner in this city, and things are improving.
The Cleveland Indians could be a challenger in the American League East this year.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a good young team, although they still are in last place, and the Browns have just absolutely captivated this town.
They haven't. It's been a long time since 1964 that they've had a playoff championship game here.
Those are the old days of Jimmy Brown, Otto Graham, those types of players, so they've had a long drive still.
Waverly's ball first down at the 21-yard line, a 10-10 tie with 12 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Browns have Ricky Bolden, Cody Reiss at the tackle, Paul Byrne, and Dan Fiker, the guards, and Mike Fab, who is not wearing an undershirt.
He's got those bare arms sticking out. His idols are Tarzan and Conan. He says he admires Conan because he's big, strong, and honorable.
He never hurts a woman, and he's not afraid of anything. And apparently, Mike Bab is not afraid of cold weather.
It reminds me a lot of Mickey Webster. Mike Webster is a great center for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They used to play against him, and he'd go out there and be freezing, and he'd have those big arms, and he'd be bare there, and you'd look at him and just be bright red, and that's what Mike Bab's arms are.
They're just bright red today.
He appears to be the only player on either team that's not wearing some sort of undershirt.
Well, you know, there was a lot of discussion this week about taking the Cleveland Browns went down to Florida to practice.
And Marty Schottenheimer, coach, said, listen, I don't want to have the distraction of the players trying to keep warm during practice.
I want them to practice and enjoy practice, and they have enjoyed practice. They had a good week of practice.
Well, that operates for the rest of this game.
Certainly the field judge will keep the 30 seconds on the field.
Thirty-second clock is not operating for Chuck Eberlein.
Now, that could be an important thing, Mel, because the 30-second clock is set in the end zone so that quarterback can see it and he can time his plays.
Here come the Browns, moving left or right in the 21-yard line.
Herman Fondnow and Brian Brennan are wide to the right. Webster Slaughter is wide to the left. Kevin Mack is a lone setback.
Bernie Kozler on the handoff to Mack, starts up the middle, bounces to the outside, racing to the near sideline across the 25-30, and knocks out a bound at the 32-yard line by Lewis Wright.
Herman Fondnow to a great block for Mack, a 13-yard pick-up and a first down.
Well, third is Brian Brennan. He's the wide receiver on that plane. He has to hook the cornerback.
Now, he doesn't throw a big block because he's not a big person, but he kind of throws a nagging block around the legs and the ankles.
The cornerback couldn't get free, and he just, in the running back, Brian, excuse me, Mack, Kevin Mack just went around the outside.
Good block by Brian Brennan.
Reggie Langhorn is wide to the right. Webster Slaughter is split to the left. Fondnow and Mack are the running backs, split behind Bernie Kozler.
Fondnow is in motion out of the backfield. Kozler will play action, looks to his right, guns to pass to Fondnow, and he's knocked out a bound near the 40.
Trying to elude Lewis Wright, and then was driven out of bounds by Dennis Smith, a throwball free safety for the Broncos, and missed last week's game against New England with a knee injury.
Randy Robbins started in place of him.
I'll tell you, Fondnow, coming out of that backfield, has as good a hand as any running back you'll see coming out of the backfield.
He is just making X-file around her.
High, low, doesn't make any difference. He's got very good hands.
He was the wide receiver at LSU.
Second down and five from the Cleveland 39.
Kozler on the handoff to Kevin Mack, planning off the left side across the 40 and after the 42 yard line, close to a first down.
Carl Mecklenburg and Roulon Jones made the tackle. Mecklenburg is known as the albino rhino.
Boy, he is quite a player.
When Mecklenburg came in, he really is the one that you have got to control on the defense. He does so many different things. He lines up all across the field.
He's got 130 tackles, so he's the number two tackler on the Denver Broncos team.
Nine and a half sacks and he's a linebacker, defensive end lineman, whatever you want to call him, he plays that position.
Third and one. High formation.
Biner has joined Kevin Mack in the Cleveland backfield.
Erdest Biner is the lead back. The handoff to Mack and he is hit, but breaks the tackle, fights forward, and it's going to be very close.
He broke out of the tackle of Tom Jackson, who had him stop for a loss.
Tom Jackson just slid through the line and met Kevin Mack and it's so surprising, Kevin Mack, he didn't even have time to get his weight going forward.
He caught him, he just guessed that he was going to do it. He guessed that the ball was going to be handed to him.
He slightly slipped through the line and just smacked Kevin Mack and made him come up about a yard short.
So a loss of the yard and Jeff Gossett is in the front. At fourth and two from the 42, Gerald Wilhite stands for the Denver 15.
Gossett drives his foot into it, a high driving spiral.
Wilhite will let it hit, it will roll inside the 10 and enter the end zone for a touchback.
That was a kick. The wind must have been blowing that way because that was about an almost a 57-yard kick.
Wow, what a kick. Really difficult to judge the wind. It swirls, it changes direction.
And now we've got a timeout with 10.20 remaining in the third quarter. The Broncos-Nebrows tie 10.10.
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The Broncos-Nebrows are meeting for the first time ever in postseason play and they're tied 10.10.
This is the NFL on NBC.
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Mel Proctor with Dave Roe back in Cleveland at 10.10 tie.
20 has kind of been a magic number for the Broncos this year.
They're 12-0 when they scored 20 or more points.
They're 0-5 when they scored less than 20.
And the Broncos begin this drive from their own 20-yard line.
John Elway on first down, Hanson Stanley Winder running to his right, looking for blocking,
turns the corner, crossed the 20 and upended at the 25-yard line by strong safety Ray Ellis.
Stanley Winder, who's led the Broncos in rushing every year since 1982.
He was a fifth-round pick in the 1982 season.
Picked up 70 yards on first down to make it second and three at the 27.
Winder had a big game last week against the Patriots, carried 19 times for 102 yards.
Steve Watson is wide to the left.
Lance Johnson is wide to the right.
Back goes Elway, shutting up inside the 20.
Fires left and it's off the hands of tight end Orson Mobley at the 31 and a late flag is thrown.
Ray Ellis was back in coverage for the Cleveland Browns, half thrown a little behind Mobley,
trying to come back and get it.
It's going to go against Cleveland, it's going to be holding probably.
That flag is thrown, it's thrown way downfield by the center referee, he's way downfield.
Illegal contact, number 59 on the defense, five yards, first down.
Against Mike Johnson, linebacker for the Browns.
It's interesting to note that certain referees, that they all have responsibilities,
and that referee that threw that flag, he allows, he is the one...
That's the umpire.
Excuse me, the umpire, all right.
Well, he is the referee.
There's only one referee.
Oh, okay.
Anyway, the umpire who threw that flag is responsible for the tight end release.
And there's only one umpire.
Orson's 10 at the 32-yard line.
And the flag is flowing again as the 32nd clock may have expired until,
on our way to that, or someone moved too early.
Well, Reggie Camp's saying it was Ken Lanier, Ken Lanier's saying, uh-uh, it was Reggie Camp.
We'll have to let either the umpire or the referee decide this now.
Or we could let the line judge decide it.
Or the headlinesman, or the back judge.
Looks like Heatherling announced it.
And Coach Lynch, defense, five yards.
No numbers given, although it appeared to be Reggie Camp, the last defensive end.
He's the one making these gestures that Mr. Heatherling, who just made that call,
so I would imagine it was him.
That's your first tip-off.
I don't know, the first and five.
Let's see if John Elway goes for a big play here.
First and five at the Denver 37.
Steve Sewell is wide to the right.
Lance Johnson, Steve Watson is quick to the left.
Elway's going to throw, dropping back.
And a deep drop, throws underneath, and the pass is caught at the 42-yard line by Clarence Kay,
who was just activated.
And he's got a first down.
John Kay had been in a drug rehabilitation program in California the last four weeks.
His first reception of the day.
And I know he's going to feel good getting back into a Broncos uniform.
He has been away, as you said, for four weeks.
They consider him the best blocking tight end.
Orson Mobley may be the best receiving tight end for this Bronco unit also.
They also consider him the best blocking tight end in the National Football League.
Absolutely, he's that type of player.
He gets down to the first down at the Bronco 45.
Watson is wide right, Watson wide left.
Mobley is in motion.
Elway with a play-action fake.
Pump fake now looking long, firing down the far sideline.
Mobley can't hold it.
It's incomplete.
At the 35-yard line of Cleveland, as he went airborne trying to make a one-handed catch,
the Clay Matthews jolted him and knocked the ball loose.
It was an interesting play on Elway's part because what he did is he faked the play-action.
Now, when you fake play-action, what you do is you put a hand into the running back,
and it's designed to look like a running play.
He cut it out, fake pumped the ball to allow Mobley to get down the sideline,
then threw in the ball, but it was too high thrown for Mobley to catch.
Second down at 10 at the 45-yard line of Denver.
Elway on a delay, hands to Stanley Winder running to his left,
and he's dropped it midfield by Anthony Griggs and Mike Johnson.
Game of five yards on the play.
It'll be third and five.
Now, from my viewpoint, you get the feeling that the next team that scores could win this game.
It's that type of game.
Both teams have been unable to move the ball in any consistency.
Cleveland had some success in the first half, but right now it's kind of like a little chess match right now.
You do this, I try to counter, I try to do this, and you try to counter.
The Browns have six defensive backs in the game.
Elway from the shotgun, third and five at midfield.
Three wide receivers to the Broncos.
Elway retreats inside the 40.
Firing long, and it's intercepted.
Mark Harper grabs it, but he's out of bounds.
And the Browns are furious.
He stepped in front of Mark Jackson, the intended receiver, and caught it as he was sailing out of bounds.
And you don't want to argue that point too much because you can get a flag thrown on your front for like contact.
They only do it on the instant replay to see if in fact he did come down.
The question was whether he came down with his feet in bounds.
He made a tremendous catch.
He stepped right in front of the receiver, came down with both feet.
I don't know if both feet came down or not.
He may have it overruled by an instant replay, or he may have it upheld.
It was a great play.
See if it stands.
Well, what did they say he was out of bounds? That was the ruling. Let's see what the replay says.
They've got the instant replay. They're looking at it to see if in fact he came down with both feet in bounds.
What do you think, Chuck Everly?
After an instant replay, look.
The pass was intercepted by Seagren.
How about that?
So it is an interception.
Mark Harper, a rookie free agent from Alcorn State, taking it off and Cleveland will take over
as the Broncos were intercepted not only by Harper, but by the replay.
The first interception, John Elway has suffered this afternoon.
Ernie Kozar has been kicked off twice.
First down for the Browns at the Cleveland 30, a 10-10 tie with 8.25 remaining in the third quarter in this AFC championship game.
Reggie Langhorn is wide to the right.
Three-year veteran from the middle of the city state, Webster Slaughter is wide to the left.
Ernest Spiner and Kevin Macker in the I-4 Nation.
Ernie Kozar takes the snap, play action fake, back to throw, firing long downfield,
and he overthrows the intended receiver, Webster Slaughter, at the 30-yard line.
He was well covered by Mike Harden, the right cornerback for Denver.
That's an open-em up pass.
Kozar threw that ball about 50 yards in the air just to get those defensive backs,
just to let them know that he can throw that ball deep.
Now he's got second down at 10.
Now he'll come back probably to a safe pass in the 12-17-yard range, maybe a curl,
but it's almost a definite passing situation, second down at 10, but that's what the defense is thinking.
Defense alignment are saying, let's get pressure on him.
Second at 10, definite passing situation.
Ernie Kozar, who had three 400-yard passing games this year against Miami and Pittsburgh
in the regular season last week in the playoff against the Jets.
The handoff to Fontenot running left spins and breaks the tackle, and he's tripped up at the 30-yard line.
So they will lose the yard.
Steve Wilson came up to make the tackle.
I told you it was a definite passing situation. He just didn't hear me.
He decided he wanted to try to run the ball, but Denver, they play good, solid defense.
When I say solid, they don't guess. One thing will get you in trouble quicker than anything,
and as a defensive player, it's a guess and guess wrong.
Denver play solid up front. They're lying back to drag quickly the ball, and they don't make mental mistakes.
Lawrence Weathers, who had a 42-yard reception in the first half, is in the game now for Cleveland.
Four wide receivers, two to each side.
Fontenot is in the backfield. It's Kozar. Drops back to throw.
Has to fire it in a hurry. It's under throw and an in-complete at the 45-yard line, although the intended receiver went down.
That was Webster's water.
Looks like he got his seat tangled up with Steve Wilson, but Roulon Jones was in there putting a lot of pressure on Bernie Kozar.
That'll bring up fourth down.
Roulon Jones, who's a great sack man, of course he is.
He's got 13 and a half sacks. He had a couple big sacks last week, one for his safety.
He put tremendous pressure on Kozar.
Kozar couldn't wait for the play to develop and had to just unload the ball.
Jeff Gassiter, who averaged 41.2 yards per kick this year for Cleveland, is in the punt.
Gets off a short end-over-end kick.
Gerald Wilhite lets it hit. It rolls inside the 30. Fielded by Wilhite, and he's dropped right there.
A 42-yard punt.
Dede Hoggard is at a big day on the special teams for Cleveland.
Was down there to make the stop.
We've got a timeout with 718 remaining in the third quarter. The Browns and the Broncos tied 10-10.
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With Dave Rose, this is Mel Proctor back at sold out Cleveland Stadium.
A crowd of over 80,000 here this afternoon on a cold windy day.
No scoring so far in the third quarter. A 10-10 tie in this AFC title game.
The Denver Broncos have the ball and will begin this drive at their 30-yard line.
John Elway is the only Bronco quarterback ever to have two 3,000-yard seasons.
Passed for nearly 3,500 yards this year.
Broncos moving right to left.
Watson is wide to the left.
Vance Johnson wide right on a delay to hand off the winder.
Slanding to his right across the 30-yard line where he's met by Anthony Griggs.
Five-year veteran from Ohio State and another of those former Philadelphia Eagles.
Now one thing that may be of significance to Denver offense is that
Gerald Wilhite, the starting left halfback I should say, is on the sideline with a cape.
He suffered a shoulder injury last week.
The aggravated in the first half and we haven't seen him in the second half.
Well he is running back punch, so that's about it.
Second down, 8-2 to 32.
Vance Johnson with Steve Watson's foot out to the left side.
Johnson is in motion left to right.
Elway dropping back.
Has time.
Rook guns it over the middle and is caught by a leaping tight end, Clarence Kay,
at the 47-yard line for a first down.
Great catch by Kay going airborne to pull it in.
One of the things about Kay that's interesting is that, you know,
as good a tight end as he is, four weeks ago he went on this drug rehabilitation.
He obviously had a substance problem.
And Dan Rees, who's the coach at Denver, said,
he's very concerned about Clarence, the human being, not just Clarence,
the football player, and he evidently has made a recovery.
He's back in a Bronco uniform and nothing bigger than that catch.
First and 10 for the Broncos at the Denver 47-yard line.
Steve Toole is in motion, Elway on a handoff to Gene Lang driving it out.
Cross midfield into Cleveland territory.
Make a standing wind around the carry.
Sam Clancy made the tackle for Cleveland.
And Denver is still splitting the Cleveland defense wide, especially Keith Bishop.
He's got about a yard slip between he and the center, and it makes a natural hold.
It moves the ends out wider, the linebackers are out wider,
and makes those holes up the center bigger than you ever believed.
You just can't believe how tough it is to move and make that tackle as an ozeman.
Broncos have two tight ends in the game, one of them being used as a u-back.
That's Mobley, who goes in motion to hand off to Winder,
twisting and turning up the middle across the 40-and down to the 36-yard line.
He's got a first down for the Broncos, and Clay Matthews makes the stop.
And there's another example of it.
They're splitting him out wide.
It puts the nozeman about four to five yards from the end.
And if they can control the nozeman, they've got a natural hole there, and Winder, he's finding it.
Gene Lang has found that seam.
It's just a natural hold.
Now Cleveland has to make some adjustments with their linebackers.
Vance Johnson is wide to the left.
Keith Toole is wide to the right.
Wilhite is back in there running back, along with Sammy Winder.
They hand off to Wilhite, takes a hip, drives forward, and he's shot down to 35-yard line again.
It's two yards as Anthony Griggs makes the stop.
And it's good to see Wilhite back there if you're a Denver Bronco fan,
because he is one of the premier running backs, blocking backs, and, of course, receivers coming out of the backfield.
He had 64 catches in the regular season.
He's an integral part of this Bronco offense.
He broke the Bronco record for reception by a running back in his season.
The old mark was set by Bo Dickinson with 60 catches in 1962.
Second down and eight for Denver, the Cleveland 35, Elway dropping back quickly.
Looks and guns it underneath the passes, caught by Orson Mobley for a first down at the 26-yard line.
We've got a penalty marker down back near the line of scrimmage.
And that's good.
I believe it's going to be a first-goal foul against Cleveland for Ruff in the quarterback.
Ricky Camp came in there late.
It looked like he got a free shot at John Elway, so that'll be tacked on if, in fact, it is.
Unnecessary roughness, number 96, roughing the passer.
That's exactly what it was.
It's all on Ricky Camp, a 275-4-year veteran from California.
And the penalty will give the Broncos the first down at the Cleveland 12.
Denver is threatening to take the lead with four minutes left in the third quarter.
Well, they've been able to run the ball because of those splits.
They've been able to pass the ball.
So they've got Winder in the backfield, and they've got Wilhite back there, and they've been finding Orson Mobley.
This is a good drive by Denver.
Cleveland takes Kyle Harrison, a defensive lineman, out, and Anthony Griggs, an extra linebacker, checks in.
Elway on the handoff to Stanley Winder, running to his left across the 15 and wrestled out of bounds at the 12-yard line.
A game of only a yard.
And now a fight breaks out between Vance Johnson of Denver and Hanford Dixon of Cleveland.
A couple of quick punches, though, but no serious damage.
Well, when you're 5'11", 170 pounds, you don't stay in there long.
You hit quick and get out of there.
It's a basic hit and run.
That's exactly what it is.
Well, that pass interference penalty, excuse me, say, rough in the pass or penalty was just a foolish mistake by Ricky Camp.
That really hurt his defensive unit.
Kyle Harrison is back in.
The 11-year veteran from Maryland Eastern Shore is the defensive captain.
Griggs comes out.
Second down and eight at the 11-yard line.
Elway back to throw.
Little screen pass caught by Gene Lang, gives the man a stiff arm, races to the far sideline, and he's inside the 10, down to the 9-yard line.
Tackle made by Mike Johnson of Cleveland.
This is one of the downs that really puts a lot of pressure on a defensive unit.
When you have an Elway back there who has that great mobility, and we saw him run for that long run in this third down situation in the first half,
he's got third down, he's got about six yards to go for a first down.
If you get past Rush on him, you've got to get pressure on him to stop his pass, but you also have to stay in front of him to not allow him to run.
The Browns are expecting a pass.
They take out the nose tackle.
Bob Dolan, no way from the shotgun.
Third and sixth at the Cleveland 9.
A 10-10 tie.
Back goes Elway.
With time, fires into the end zone.
It's knocked down by Mike Johnson.
He's squatted it down at the 6-yard line.
And while the Broncos are shaking up, can't pick up a number, but he's lying in the end zone.
So that'll bring up fourth down, and Rich Carlos is in the fast field goal.
Gerald Wilhite is the man who's shaken up.
He was hurt earlier.
He was the intended receiver.
As Elway tried to hit him in the end zone, he got popped, and Elway's pass was deflected.
What a close call on that interception.
That really should have been an interception.
It hit him right smack in the hand.
But it was just because of the velocity that he throws with, the defender doesn't come up with an interception.
And we've got a timeout with a score tie, Denver 10 and Cleveland 10.
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There's more championship football coming up right after this game.
Don Crickie and Bob Crumpey are standing by a giant stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, where the Redskins and Giants are getting ready to meet for the NFC title and a Super Bowl berth.
After the game, you'll have a chance to get into the act by calling Bob Crumpey at 1-800-NFL-LIVE.
Keep your radio dial tuned to the NFL on NBC.
I'm Mel Proctor, along with Dave Rowe here in Cleveland. It's near the end of the third quarter, 2.54 remaining.
And the Denver Broncos will attempt to field goal. This will be about a 26-yarder by Rich Carlos.
They're doing the regular season, made 20-28, kicked two last week against New England.
Jerry Kubiak will hold for them, a 26-yard attempt by the Fairfax Carlos.
Kubiak with his hands spread, takes the snap, spots it down, the kick is on the way, and it is good as the Denver Broncos take the lead on Rich Carlos' second field goal of the game.
It's now 13-10 Denver.
That was an important kick for Rich Carlos. He has got to make that kick in order to give them a lead, and he does.
Wow. I'd like to remind you that on January the 25th, the NFL and NBC will be in Pasadena, California for Super Bowl XXI.
Our coverage begins at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Free Game Show with Bob Costas.
Then Don Cricky and Bob Crumpy will bring you all the action.
After the game, it will be your turn to participate by calling 1-800-NFL-LIVE, all coming your way on Sunday, January the 25th at Super Bowl, right here on NBC Radio.
Well, one thing you don't want to do if you're Cleveland Brown is to panic in this situation. You're only down three minutes, three points.
You've got two minutes and 50 seconds left in this third quarter, a lot of time, and you've got one of the best scoring machines in the history of the National Football League with Mark Mosley.
You remember a few years ago he had that tremendous string where he put together a lot of kicks.
Twenty-three straight.
Twenty-three straight field goals at all different distances, and all they do is have to get in his range.
Dropping back deep for Cleveland, Gerald McNeil, Reggie Langhorn, and Herman Fontenot on a pause five seconds for station identification.
Two o'clock, 26 degrees at WMAQ Radio Chicago.
Rich Collis will kick it off. Collis, we mentioned, is a barefoot kicker, which has to be rough on a day like this, but when he is not kicking and he's on the sidelines, he's got a bright orange down boot that he wears to keep that foot warm.
As I look on the sideline over there, someone's got his food on. I guess they're trying to keep it warm for him.
The cold, windy afternoon here in Cleveland, temperatures in the 30s, the wind's really whooping around, coming off Lake Erie and in the distance out on the lake, you can see the big breakers.
You know, I've never understood with a barefoot kicker what the advantage is, why the advantage. They say they feel the ball better. I'm sure they do.
But I've never seen the advantage of why you have to kick barefoot over kicking with, say, a soccer-style shoe.
Collis approaches the football. Here's his kickoff, a high, short end-over-end kick.
It's taken by Herman Fondo, running it back across the 25-30. 35-40, out to the 45-50, and dragged down at midfield.
But there's a penalty marker down. Good run back by Herman Fondo.
Jaren Cuomo made the tackle for the Denver Broncos, but there's a flag lying back at the 27-yard line.
That'll be the illegal block in the back. That's the one. It's a five-yard penalty where they just, what they do is you push someone in the back.
It's not the clip where you're blocking below the waist. It's just a, they call it almost an inadvertent show from behind.
Illegal block, above the waist, in the back. Number 58, on your return. Ten yards, face down.
Scott Nicholas, guilty of the illegal block.
And Mel, to tell you the impact that that penalty has, it looks as if it's just a five-yard penalty, but they had the ball at the 50-yard line, so that's a 33-yard penalty,
because now they're back on their own 17.
Fine run back by Herman Fondo is negated by the penalty, and it's the first down for the Browns at the Cleveland 17. Denver leading 13-10.
Browns have been penalized ten times today for 62 yards.
Backs in the I-formation, Biner and Mack. Reggie Langhorn is in motion. The handoff is earned as Mack, the second man through, and he bucks it off to the 21-yard line.
Gain of four yards on the play. Both Mack and Biner gained over 1,000 yards each last year, only the third duo in NFL history to accomplish that feat.
Larry Zalk and Mercury Morris each gained over 1,000 yards. The Dolphins in 72. Franco Harrison and Rocky Blyer accomplished the feat. The Steelers in 76.
And if you're a Cleveland Brown, you have to believe that's one thing that the offensive linemen have said when Kozar is in there.
He says, don't worry, we're going to drive this ball down the field. He's got great confidence, and he exudes it to his offensive line.
Ozzie Newsom is wide to the right. Herman Fondo is wide to the left. Mack is the lone setback.
Long count by Bernie Kozar, dropping back to throw. Looks left and completes the pass to 32-yard line to Webster Slaughter.
Crosses 35 to the 40 and drops there. Webster Slaughter, a rookie from San Diego State who had 40 with Sessions during the regular season.
Mike Harden and Randy Robbins bring him down at the 40. That's the first time for Cleveland. Slaughter looks like he may be hurt.
He got stung in the left shoulder when he went down. The thing that made that play work is that Webster Slaughter really ran the defensive back about 12 to 15 yards deep, did a quick curl.
He got the ball. He kind of swung off there. The defensive back didn't react quick enough, and he picked up the additional yardage.
Brian Brennan is wide to the left along with Reggie Langhorn. Mack and Fondo in the backfield. First down for the Cleveland Browns at the Cleveland 40-yard line.
Kozar with a play-action fake. Back to throw. Looks, fires, and it's caught along the far sidelines of the 38-yard line by Reggie Langhorn for a first down.
And you have to love Bernie Kozar in this situation. He goes in that huddle. He says, you've got to believe we've got the magic.
Everybody in Cleveland thinks this is their year. He goes in there, zoos that offense, and now he's come up with two big plays.
You know, a lot of quarterbacks in this situation. He's thrown two interceptions. He's behind. We get rattle, especially with the inexperience he has, but not Bernie Kozar.
Clarence Weathers is in the game. He's wide to the left. Brennan is put out to the near side along with Ernest Miner.
Kozar on the handoff to Mack, straight ahead, driving to the 36th, a game of a couple of yards. Jim Ryan and Tom Jackson bring him down.
Getting back to Kozar, Paul Farrow on the left guard said that last week when the Browns were down 20-10 with just over four minutes left in regulation that Kozar came into the huddle and said, men, we're going to go get this game.
They were just amazed by how he pulled this team together and he was true to his word. They came from behind to win it in double overtime.
One of the things you have to admire him, he came into Cleveland. Who wants to play in Cleveland? Bernie Kozar did. He said it when he was drafted.
Well, he's from Boardman, Ohio. The handoff is to Mack, starts up the middle, bounces the outside, running down the near sideline and puts out a bound inside the 30.
They'll mark him out of bounds at the 27-yard line. Now another fight breaks out as Mack gets into it with a couple of Broncos. Ernest Miner also over there.
Boy, a lot of jawing going on in this game. Nobody's swinging, but everybody right up to the other guy's face. This is a day you don't want to hit anybody, it hurts.
And I thought that was really interesting in Kozar. He said, I want to play with Cleveland. Like you said, there was a young boy who was brought to this stadium, this stadium's been some of the greatest football players to ever play this game.
He said, this is where I want to play. Everybody always wants to go to the so-called southern teams or the teams that have the great records, but he wanted to play here.
First down for the Cleveland Browns at the Denver 27. Denver leading 13-10, 14 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Three wide receivers for the Browns. Kozar on the handoff to Mack, off-left tackle, driving hard down to the 20-yard line.
Ricky Hundley and Steve Foley coming up to make the stop, and that should bring the quarter to an end.
Kevin Mack is carried 20 times for 82 yards, and that's the end of the third quarter from Cleveland Stadium, as the Browns are coming to life behind the running of Kevin Mack.
And at the end of three quarters, this AFC Championship game, it's Denver 13 and Cleveland's end.
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I'll talk to you with Dave Rowe back in Cleveland, a crowd of over 80,000 here this afternoon, and this is the NFL on NBC.
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The Cleveland Browns using the running of tough, durable Kevin Mack of driven down to the 20.
Show you how tough he is and how durable he played the full USFL season 1985 during the Browns with the training camp.
And last year rushed for over a thousand yards. Great football almost year round.
Second down three at the 20. Action moving right to left.
Mack running to his right across the 20 driving forward inside the 15 down to the 14 yard line in the first down.
Just running over Denver Broncos.
Steve Foley finally brought him down and what a block by Kevin Biner.
Biner has been on injury reserve for what eight or nine weeks and he comes in here throws a great block.
It is the running of Kevin Mack, but Biner is the one that really is throwing the great block on that play to spring him.
Mack and Biner had played only seven quarters together this year still being reunited this afternoon this playoff game.
First out at the 14 yard line of Denver.
There he holds the tight end just on the right side to the left.
Mack is the lone setback, a wide receiver to each side.
And it's Mack again straight ahead driving down to the 11 yard line.
Carl Mecklenburg makes the stop. Another little skirmish breaks out.
And who starts it?
It was Biner. He used to have field throw and blocks on Lillie the safety on that play.
He just went down and leveled him.
It was Ernest Biner I should say. Did I say Kevin Biner? I meant to say Ernest Biner.
But they really are matching pairs of running backs.
They've got similar abilities, similar styles, they're both bruising type runners.
And a lot of times you can get them mixed up because they both wear four, 34 and 44.
Reggie Langhorn and Ernest Biner wide to the right.
Kozart takes the snap, hands to Mack, running to his right, drives forward inside to 10,
down to the 8 yard line where Simon Plutcher, a 240 pound two year veteran from Houston, brings him down.
Mentioned Mack and Biner, Kevin Mack is a lot of credit to Ernest Biner for helping him when he first came into the NFL last year.
Mack broke Jim Brown's rookie rushing record for the Browns last year with 1,104 yards.
Now the third down and three, big down. Boy this is an awfully big down.
They don't want to have to settle for a field goal not after having driven the ball almost the length of the field.
Langhorn splits to the right, Brian Brunnen and Clarence Weathers are wide to the left.
Norman Fontenot is in the backfield now.
Kozart with a short drop, looks to his left, retreating and he throws it away.
Threw it out of the end zone.
Brian Brunnen was the nearest man to it.
I think he wanted to go to Fontenot first and Fontenot stepped up then decided he was just going to fly out of the backfield.
When he did, the Bronx was the delegated linebacker with him.
They said hey he's caught too many passes.
Kozart was under a lot of pressure and in comes Mr. Mosley.
Boy I tell you every kick is big now.
This will be a 26 yard attempt by Mark Mosley who kicked the field goal just before the end of the first half to tie the score at 10.
And now he'll try to tie it at 13.
It's interesting to know that Schottenheimer, when he got that second chance, Schottenheimer he asked what was the words to Mosley.
He told him, he said go in there and kick this one, make it good so we can all go home.
I'm tired.
When Mosley missed the field goal in the first overtime period he was asked how he felt.
He said he felt like he had 80,000 people on his shoulders, all of them with knives aimed at his back.
Said he didn't want to end his career that way.
And he kicked the game winner in the second overtime period to give the Browns the victory.
Jeff Gossett spots it down and Mosley's kick is perfect.
So we are tied again with 12.38 remaining in the fourth quarter in this AFC Championship game.
It's Cleveland 13 and Denver 13.
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Mel Proctor with Dave Rowe back at Cleveland Stadium where Mark Mosley, 26-yard field goal,
his second of the game is tied to score 13 all.
Mosley a three-time pro bowler, originally drafted by the Philadelphia Eagles,
also played with Houston for most of his career with the Redskins.
It was a crushing blow for him when he was released by Washington.
You know, you talk about Rich Collins being a barefoot kicker,
and how barefoot kickers feel they have a better touch,
but Mosley wears about 10 pairs of socks.
He's one of the few conventional kickers.
I can't think of another conventional kicker.
When you say conventional, you mean non-soccer style that approaches the ball straight on.
He's got big old square-toed shoes.
He looks like he's kind of a throwback to the 60s and 70s in the world of professional football.
Reminiscent of some great kickers here in Cleveland, Lou the Toe Groza and Don Cockroft.
Mosley ready to kick off with 12.38 left in the fourth quarter of 13 all tie.
Ken Bell and Gene Lang are back deep for the Denver Broncos.
Here's Mosley's kickoff. It's a good one.
High end over end kick. It'll be taken by Lang at the 5th grade ahead of the 10.
15 tries to cut back and he jumps at the 18-yard line.
Again, tremendous coverage by Cleveland on the special teams.
Major Everett was down there to make the tackle.
Well, the mark of a great special teams unit is anytime you tackle that kickoff inside the 20-yard line,
because if you allow it to go in the end zone, you automatically get it out to the 20-yard line,
and Cleveland has come down consistently,
stopping Denver from returning it at least out to the 20-yard line.
First down for the Broncos, moving left or right.
It's all up a 19-yard line.
Mark Jackson slips out wide to the right.
He's got a Bronco rookie record for receiving yards this year.
Stanley Weiner and Gene Lang are the running back.
Steve Toole is in motion from the wing left.
The pitch is to Lang running to his left.
Cuts up field across the 20- to the 23-yard line.
Brought down by Mike Johnson and the free safety Chris Rockin.
Gene Lang, a three-year veteran from LSU,
began the season as a starter, but then knee and ankle injuries took their toll,
and Will Hyte moved into the starting lineup along with Stanley Weiner.
Now, I just got a funny feeling that Elway is going to go upstairs and throw this ball in this situation.
They have just not been able to grind out consistently on the ground.
I just get the feeling that anytime he's going to throw in them long bombs.
The Browns have their run defense in.
Second down and six. Back goes Elway.
Looks to his right, guns a pass, a drop by the tie down Orson Mobley at the 31.
It was right in his hand.
It really was, and Elway walked disgustedly about 10 yards away from the huddle.
He kind of took his hand, just kind of snapped it down and walked over to the sideline,
forced to get the play, but also just to vent his frustrations,
because that ball was right in Mowgli's belly.
But it's cold, fingers may be a little numb,
and as hard as Elway throws the football, it's not as easy to catch as it may seem.
Now, in fairness to Mowgli, it's a tough catch, yes.
But catchable.
Third down and six from the 23, shotgun formation.
Steve Watson goes in motion.
Back goes Elway, setting up with the 12.
Guns a pass out along the near sideline, and it's caught by Vance Johnson at the 28.
Looks like it might be short.
Oh, that's a critical mistake. You have got to get first down yards.
Third down and about eight yards to go, and he just, when he made his throw pattern,
he didn't make it deep enough.
He caught the ball, he immediately went to the ground,
and he comes up about a yard short, and they're going to have to punt.
He picked up five yards, but they needed six for the first dial,
so it'll be fourth and one.
Score tied, 13 all, 11-14 remaining.
And Gerald McNeil turned to the dog pound and pumped his fist,
and they react, howling and barking.
McNeil, who was second in the AFC and tried to return, averaging 11.1.
High snap, and Mike Horan gets the kick away.
Almost got it blocked, a wobbly spiral.
McNeil will take it at the 32, running to his left across the 35 to the 40
and tripped up at the 41 yard line.
Had he broken that tackle, it might have been a big run back.
And listen to this crowd. They're going to come alive with Bernie Kozar.
They know he just drove down the field, and now they want another drive,
and they're going to scream and yell.
We have 10-45 remaining in the fourth quarter with a score tied, 13 all.
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What?
When the GM vehicle is on the drawing board,
they design the sound right into it with all those fancy computer designs.
Is that how they do it?
Whatever the acoustics call for, Delco does it fearlessly.
So no wonder our people don't want to get out of the van.
Hey, can you blame them? I wouldn't get out.
No, hopefully though they'll throw their bouquet on your porch next time.
I'll tell them to aim for the actual porch.
Thanks a lot.
Happy anniversary.
Bye.
When you decide to get a Delco music system for your GM truck or van,
you'll love it too much to leave it.
So, did you tell that Sloan's a singer too?
Well, I got a lost face.
Whoa, what was that?
That sounded like bottles being thrown at our front door.
I guess the milkman must have gotten a Delco too.
What?
From the waves of the Pacific
through the heartland USA
From the old South to New England
and pass along the way
From the Great Lakes
through the wire on the mountain to the shore
We're your neighbor and you've made us America's favorite song
Get prepared to say you've made us
America's favorite song
K-Mine, the saving place.
And only a second here in the National Football League,
Bernie Kozara passed for 3,854 yards,
the third best total in Brown's history.
And Kozara and the Browns will begin this drive from the Cleveland 40,
moving right to left here at Chilly Cleveland Stadium.
Herman Fondo and Reggie Langhorne are wide to the right
and Langhorne the inside man.
Klerk Weathers is split wide to the left.
Kevin Mack is the lone setback.
Bernie Kozara with a short drop, rolling to his right.
Now in trouble, a loser's sack but goes down,
a rule on Joe's nearly took his head off.
The good thing he got down, he might have been hurt.
Well he saw a rule on Joe coming from his left side
as he stepped on those pockets and he immediately went to the ground
and rule on was right there in the valley.
If he had hit him, he'd have broke his neck on that play.
He really was coming full blast and had those arms out,
was going to make the big tackle and Kozara just jumped underneath it.
And well he got sacked but he avoided the big hit.
Avoided decapitation.
Boy, he did on that play, wow.
But he'll take the sack instead.
Jones during the season has 13 and a half sacks,
the New Bronco record.
Lost a three, a second and 13 from the 38.
Sore tied, 13 all, 10-11 left in the fourth quarter.
Kozara backpedals into the pocket, fires underneath
and it's caught by Brennan near midfield at the 49
and he's tackled by Dennis Smith and Mike Harden.
Brian Brennan, the all-time leading receiver in Boston College history.
Going to about eight yards will be third and two.
I was just going to bring up a point I think that can bear some,
have some bearing on this game.
And that was when Denver had to settle for those two field goals
when they had that first down on about the three-yard line
and weren't able to get it in.
Then when they ran that interception down there,
again they were unable to punch it in, had to settle for two field goals.
That could be a big factor in this game because they should have scored touchdowns.
Anytime you've got first down inside the five, you should be able to drive it in.
Langhorn and Fontanar are wide to the right.
Weather's wide to the left.
A handoff to Kevin Mack, planting to his right
and he's tacked up near midfield by the veteran Tom Jackson.
They needed two yards for a first down but he didn't get it.
There's no decision for Schottenheimer, Coach Schottenheimer from the Cleveland.
They have got to punt the ball in this situation.
The crowd is yelling, go for it, but boy that could be a critical mistake in this situation.
Looks like they're going to go for it.
Wow.
They don't know.
They're staying in there.
They don't get it.
Denver's going to have great field position.
Dave Pizzulli is in there.
They like to use him as a lead back, as a pullback in short yardage situations.
He's a defensive lineman, but they use him much like the Bears did
with refrigerator Perry last year before he ballooned up to 350.
Pizzulli is a 260 pounder.
He'll be the lead back in the eye along with Kevin Mack.
More than one from the 50-yard line.
Bernie Kozai up the movement on the right side.
The right tackle, Cody Risen pointing at one of the Broncos, Jim Ryan.
Question is who moved first?
Well now he wasn't a tackle.
He was playing a position.
He was playing the end man.
Now he can reshift.
He was in a three-point position, but he can reshift.
Foul start, number 63, accumulating the style of the play.
Five yards, fourth down.
Against Risen.
Well he called it five yards, first down.
What he meant is a five-yard penalty.
He said he simulated the start of a play.
He can shift, but he can't do anything to draw the defense offside, and that's what he did.
Looks like he was setting up the pass block.
I think he was.
He was straight and forth and won.
Now I'll tell you the truth, I think that Cleveland will punt now.
I think they certainly should punt.
I would greatly disagree with that play.
You just don't go for it to do what's safe in a situation like this.
Now the punting unit comes on.
Now he may, Kozar may have been trying to draw the defense offside, take the five-yard penalty, and then punt the ball.
That's what I thought he may have been trying to do, but if they had gone for that and not made it, they'd give Denver great field position.
Now Cleveland's calling for a timeout.
Jeff Gossett was back in punt formation and then panically was signaling for a timeout.
Well they have got really, seriously, if you go for that play and you don't make it, you give Denver great field position.
That's a crazy play.
I think that penalty may have been the best thing that happened to Cleveland, because now they're forced to punt it.
Crazy play unless it works to keep the drive alive.
Well, but wait a minute now.
What happens if it doesn't?
If they get a bad snap, if the running back slips?
There's so many things that can go wrong.
Apparently Marty Schottenheimer has great confidence in his defense.
Well, I understand what you're saying, but that is a foolish play.
You just have to play the percentages.
It's like taking points off the scoreboard.
You get a field goal and you get that and all of a sudden you get a penalty and you take those points off.
There's a lot of times you won't score after that.
That could have been a crucial play in this game.
Speaking of Marty Schottenheimer, he has some ties to Bronco assistant Joe Collier.
He played for Collier with the Buffalo Bills in the AFL.
He was his linebacker coach.
And then Marty was out of football working as a real estate developer in Denver for three years.
Decided he wanted to get back into football.
And he used to visit Joe Collier who was then a Broncos assistant and visit with him.
Joe Collier's urging he got back in the game and Joe put him in touch with Dick Corey.
He was the head coach of the Portland Storm in the World Football League.
And they signed Marty Schottenheimer as a player coach.
He hurt his shoulder and was unable to continue as a player, but that began his coaching career.
He's been a great defensive coach here as a defensive coordinator for several years under San Martino.
Then he took over when they fired San Martino and they've had their greatest success.
Gerald Wilhite is standing back at the Denver 12 awaiting the kick by Gossett.
Here comes the big rush.
He gets the kick away, a high driving spiral.
Wilhite will take it at the 8 running to his left and he falls down the 12 yard line.
And three Cleveland Browns are all over him.
Great punt by Gossett, 47 yards.
Kind of surprising that Wilhite decided to run it back.
Well, you don't catch the ball inside your own 10 yard line.
You let the ball carry into the end zone.
He didn't do it.
Now they're backed up on their own 12 yard line.
And with 8.34 remaining in this AFC Championship game, we'll take a break.
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Mel Parker with Dave Roe in Cleveland.
This is the NFL on NBC.
MUSIC
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MUSIC
Denver, BR.
Going to begin this drive from their 11-yard line with 834 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Short side, 13 all.
The line has completed 13 of 44 passes for 106 yards, an intercepted one.
Here come the Broncos moving left or right.
Steve Washington splits out wide to the left.
Mark Jackson, a little 5'9", 175.
Look, he is wide to the right.
Weinder and Langer, the running back, the handoff, the liners, landing to his left.
And he's cut down at the 12-yard line by Sam Clancy, the former basketball star at Pitt.
He played with the Seattle Seahawks and then in the USFL before coming back to the NFL with Cleveland.
And Clancy almost tackled that ball away from him that time.
He went in there and on his tackle, he grabbed the football, almost pulled it loose.
Second down and nine from the 13-yard line.
Weinder is a long setback.
Double tight end for the Broncos.
In fact, they have all three tight ends in the game now.
The playback, Mobley is in motion.
Elway with play action.
Running to his right, fires on the run.
The 10-grit at the 20-yard line and nearly picked off.
He tried to hit Steve Watson.
Frank Minnifield broke it up.
What a play by Minnifield.
The ball was thrown into Watson.
He had it.
Minnifield got his arm inside and ripped that ball out before Watson could pull it all the way in.
Great man-on-man coverage.
You wonder why they're considered two of the best tandem quarterbacks.
Tandem of cornerbacks.
Minnifield, unbelievable man-on-man coverage.
Just tremendous coverage.
Lance Sampson, Vance Johnson, Mark Jackson, Steve Watson.
Four wide receivers in the game now for Denver.
Three of them.
Jackson, Watson, and Johnson are wide left.
Sampson is wide to the right.
Wilhite's in there in the backfield and Elway will throw from the shot gun.
He retreats to the five.
The quarterback draws across the 10-to-15, 20, 25, and down to 27-yard line.
There's a penalty marker down.
And where it was thrown might indicate a hold against Denver.
Almost definitely a hold.
And it was a designed play for a quarterback draw.
What Elway does is he takes the ball, drops back about four to five yards,
and he finds that team and with his ability to run, he's got great speed,
four-six feet he scrambles up there, but it's a hold against Denver Broncos.
They're going to bring it back, march off the penalty, and it'll be about the seven-yard line.
Elway's got a half-fifty, half-fifty-four, half the distance to the goal, third down.
Holding call on the center, Billy Bryan.
We'll mention Elway's running ability.
Let's ask the quarterback in rushing.
The average 4.9 yards per carry this year.
Now facing a third-and-fifteen situation from the seven-yard line.
And now he had a tremendous play last week from this distance.
He's got that great scampering ability.
Seven-forty-four left in the fourth quarter.
A 13 all-time.
Elway from the shotgun, retreating into his end zone, getting some pressure,
and he throws underneath to Steve Sewell with two blockers in front of him across the five to the ten.
Cuts back at the 15.
He's jumped at the 17-yard line.
Short of the first down.
Mark Harper made the tackle.
Elway absolutely mud, head to toe.
He's got mud on his complete uniform.
He had to take a hit that time to draw the defensive line in and allow them to rush him.
He had to wait the last second to dump that ball off on the screenplay.
That's what makes it effective, and he took quite a hit in the end zone.
Mark Harper, clearly with the defensive back, has shaken up on the play.
He started to walk off the field, was a little wobbly, and then collapsed at the 22-yard line.
And two of the trainers are out to check on him.
They run out quickly, and, of course, those are not charged timeouts.
Anytime a player is hurt on the field now, they take a referee's timeout to allow them to come out.
It used to be the old thing, get to the sideline, we can't waste the timeout, and they just about drag people off.
The NFL came out and said, listen, we'll call a timeout.
Anytime there's an injury, we'll call a timeout and we'll allow that player to get off the field.
Now Harper is being helped off the field.
Kickers have been important in today's game.
Both putters, Gossett and Horan, have had outstanding days.
Each place kicker, Mark Mosley and Ritz-Thomas, have kicked a pair of field goals.
One of the referees has come all the way over here to the sideline.
I don't know what he's doing.
Everybody's...
Mark Horan is into punt.
The ice cube, Gerald McNeil, is back deep standing at the 40-yard line of Cleveland.
He was so named by the putter, Jeff Gossett, who saw an ice cube on his plate during training camp,
that they noticed how slippery and elusive the ice cube was.
He looked at Gerald McNeil and said, that ice cube reminds me of you.
I'm going to call you ice cube.
I thought maybe it was because he could have sit on the refrigerator's back easily
and have lots of room to run around.
No, Dave.
No way, huh?
Don't you think he could sit on the refrigerator's back and have plenty of room to dance?
The refrigerator would probably eat him.
11 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter.
The 32nd clock has not worked for most of the game.
They're keeping it down on the sideline.
A reminder that we've got more football action coming up.
The NFC Championship game live from Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
Don Crickie and Bob Crumby bringing you all the action right after this one.
And then after the game, you'll have a chance to talk with Crum by calling 1-800-NFL LIVE.
So keep your dial tuned to the NFL and NBC.
And now in this situation, I just noticed that Cleveland put 10 men up on the line of scrimmage.
I think they're going to come after this one.
By Coran standing at the two-yard line, he's the third putter used by the Broncos this year.
The grounds go for the block.
Coran gets the kick away, a low driving kick.
McNeil backs up, takes it to the 38 running to his left across the 40, 45, trying to get outside.
And he's knocked out of bounds rudely along the near sideline to 47-yard line.
Rick Denison made the tackle, a 44-yard kick by Coran.
A good field position for the Cleveland Browns.
A 13-all tie with 640 left in the fourth quarter.
That's a great field position.
If you're an offensive unit, you get to start on your own 46, 47-yard line.
That is a great field position because you only need two or three first downs and you're in field goal position.
Cleveland's kicking game has given the Browns good field position.
By contrast, the Broncos have had poor field position most of the day.
Cleveland begins this drive from the Browns 48.
Clark Weathers is wide to the left.
Reggie Langhorn and Herman Fonnell are wide to the right.
Kevin Max is the lone setback.
The tight end Holt moves to the left side of the right.
Bernie Kozler takes the snap, drops back to throw, swings it out of the backfield.
And Mack who drops it.
And it's incomplete at the 40-yard line.
A little swing pass to Kevin Max.
Ricky Hundley was right there in coverage for the Denver Broncos.
Now Bernie Kozler has to go downfield.
It's second down and 10.
Again, almost a sure pass in situation.
He has to go down and pick up that 10 yards.
You just can't squander these opportunities.
When you get great field position like this, you've got to capitalize on it.
You've got to move down in your opponent's field.
You can't keep on trading punches.
This is time for a knockout punch for Cleveland.
Now Gerald McNeil is in as a wide receiver.
He was a great receiver in the USFL with Houston.
He had 58 catches for over 1,000 yards in 1985.
Four wide receivers in the game for the Browns.
On second and 10, Kozler on a draw.
Hans Sifantino running to his right to midfield, lowers his head, drives forward to the 48-yard line.
Tackled by Simon Fletcher as the Browns try to cross up the Broncos for the draw play.
One of the things, of course, is getting darker here.
It's getting colder.
And I look down there, Kozler's got his hand inside his jersey trying to keep those fingers warm.
Fish on that passing hand.
Bernie Kozler has completed 15 of 29 passes for 200 yards.
He's been intercepted twice.
And it's also going to touch down fast.
And the
out wide to the right, along with another receiver, Brennan.
And Weathers has put to the near side.
Back goes Kozler.
Looks to his left, firing long down field for Brennan.
And it's caught at the 15.
Down the sidelines to the 10.
Five.
Upside down.
And Brennan had to come back and get the ball that made the catch at the 15, broke away from Dennis Smith, and took it in for a touchdown to give the Cleveland Browns a lead.
Now that's the knockout punch that the Cleveland Browns needed.
They needed to go deep.
Kozler comes down.
He throws that ball way high in the air.
Now, he's a defender.
He loses sight of it.
Brennan doesn't lose sight of it.
He turns back.
He turns back to his left.
Turns back to his right.
Kicks up the ball.
Comes down with.
Oh, boy, the biggest catch he's had in a long time.
Solid-dash with that.
And this fell out crowd of over 80,000 is going wild as Mark Mosley's prepared to kick the conversion out of Jeff Gossett's hold.
The Browns lead it 19 to 13 on a 48-yard touchdown throw by Kozler.
Mosley's pick is good.
The Cleveland Browns have taken the lead.
They're 20 to 13 over the Denver Broncos in this AFC Championship game.
And you've got to believe, and that's what Cleveland does.
They believe in the ability of Bernie Kozler.
He threw that ball up really just for grabs.
Because Brennan was able to come back and find it, he had the vision to look back.
He knew the pass was intended for him.
He looked back and found it, came down with a big catch.
And they are raining dog biscuits in the end zone.
And they must have about 40 or 50 security there trying to keep the dog ball biscuit thing.
Fluttering up the field.
It's amazing the number of dog bones biscuits that are being thrown all over this place.
They're going wild in the dog town now.
Two great young quarterbacks, Bernie Kozler and John Elway.
Two different styles.
Elway very mobile, a good scramble, a powerful throwing arm.
Kozler is not mobile, doesn't run well, has an orthodox throwing style.
He's a fight armor.
His father said that he started coaching Bernie when he was a young kid.
He said when he first started with him, he had picture perfect form.
He threw over the top.
Said he reminded him of Terry Bradshaw and his dad Bernie Phoenix.
Said, oh it took me two years to get him throwing sidearm.
I lost him up.
Well, you know, everybody talks about the great class of 83 for the quarterback.
And Bernie Kozler this year is 4-0 versus those quarterbacks.
He's one of those class of 83 quarterbacks, but he's not in that class.
It's 20-13 Cleveland with 5-43 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Ken Bell and Gene Lang are back deep for the Denver Broncos, awaiting Mark Mosley's kickoff.
The Cleveland Browns who last won an NFL championship in 1964.
Here's Mosley's kickoff.
A short kick.
It'll hit at the 15-yard line, rolling inside the 10 to the 5.
And the Broncos will have Ken Bell fall on the 2-yard line.
And he's buried by about 6 Cleveland Browns.
D.D. Hoggart is the first man to get to him along with Mark Harper.
And they've been outstanding on the special team.
Gene Lang is shaken up for Denver.
Broncos will have the ball between the 1 and the 2-yard line.
What a play.
Mosley, when he kicked that ball off, it was like it looked as if it was almost a knuckleball coming off his shoe.
And Lang could never find the ball.
It wasn't Lang.
But he said, Steve, I could never find the ball.
And the ball just kind of fluttered.
And when it got down to the 2-yard line, all he could do was fall on it.
Bell was trying to pick it up.
Lang was going to block for him.
And Lang kind of turned his head, just as he did, about 3 Browns buried him.
Denver begins this drive between the 1 and the 2-yard line.
John Elway is going to throw out of the end zone, swings it out on the left flat to Sandy Winder.
And he's written out a foul for the 8-yard line by Hanford Dixon.
What pressure on John Elway to be on his own 2-yard line.
It shows you his great confidence to throw the ball.
You're on your own 2-yard line.
Most quarterbacks, 9 out of 10, would try to run the ball out there and get that better field position.
Elway comes up throwing the ball.
Great confidence in his throwing ability.
Game of 5, the second and 5, and the 7.
Steve Watson and Mark Vance Johnson are wide to the right.
Two tight ends in the game for the Broncos.
K and Mobley.
Winders alone setback.
Vance Johnson is in motion.
Elway on the pitch.
The winder running to his right.
Elway is off to 5, cuts back, right forward.
He's dropped out the 9-yard line by Reggie Camp.
Again, it's 2 yards.
It'll be 3rd down and 3.
Actually, 3rd down and 2 as they mark his forward progress to the 10.
Winders carried 18 times for 59 yards.
And now the Cleveland Browns have got to be aware that Elway can scramble with the ball.
He may pass it, he may run it.
He drops back to pass, I think he's going to call time out to think about it.
The Broncos have 3 timeouts left and they'll use one here.
What happens on that play, Mel, is that Elway, when he drops back, he's such a great running quarterback.
He's got that great average that he can step up through the scene and pick up that 1st down by running.
That's something that Cozart does not have the ability to do.
Or he can just hand the ball off the winder and hope they pick up 2 or 3 yards going wide.
This is an awfully big play from John Elway.
If they don't make it, they'll barely be able to punt out past midfield.
Another Super Bowl here on NBC Radio from Pasadena, California.
That's on January the 25th beginning at 5 p.m. Eastern Time of the pregame show.
Hosted by Bob Costas and Don Crickie and Bob Crumpey will bring you all the play-by-play.
And after the game, 1-800-NFL-LIVE is the number to call to talk football on the NFL Live.
John Elway has completed 15 of 47 passes for 122 yards, 1 touchdown, 1 interception.
The attendance this afternoon, 79,958, 953, 79953.
There are only 58 no-shows.
I think all of Cleveland is here today.
There's a lot of people and they're all dressed in orange.
Cleveland Brown's orange, that is.
Each team has 2 timeouts left, 4-17 remaining in the 4th quarter.
Cleveland leading 20 to 13.
I'd like to thank our fighters, Chuck Day and Marty Schengler and our statistician, Don Dribble, for their help this afternoon.
Here come the Broncos, moving left to right, a big down here.
Third down and 2 at the 10-yard line.
Will Hyke and the winder, the running back.
These two, there's a motion from a wing right.
Elway on a handoff, the winder grinding out, across the 10, close to a first down.
They need it 2 yards, looks like he's got it.
Oh, it's going to be close.
Oh, I think that's real close.
They may have to measure this one.
The Broncos are indicating they've got it.
The Browns are saying, no, he's a foot short.
They will measure.
It's awfully close.
What a big play.
I was surprised by that call.
They just ran a quick hold in the middle.
It's almost like a trap where the center and the guard kind of exchange positions.
One fires out, the other one fires behind him.
They try to split the defense.
He didn't make it by much if, in fact, he did make it.
They stretch out the chain.
And it's a first down.
By less than the length of a football.
First down for Denver at the 11-yard line.
A long way to go with 411 left and the Broncos trailing by 7 points.
The Browns have taken a deep throw away from Elway this afternoon.
Steve Watson is wide to the left.
Too tight into the game for the Broncos.
Vance Johnson, the slot left.
He comes in motion.
Elway on the handoff to Winder straight ahead off left tackle.
Stacked up at a 15-yard line.
Does this play selection surprise you a little, Dave?
Absolutely.
I think he ran head on into Anthony Griggs.
Just right face to face.
And I'm thinking it's time for Elway to throw the ball up in the air.
That's the way that he moves the ball effectively.
And he's not doing it.
He's trying to run.
He used the clock up.
I don't know why he'd want to use the clock up.
There's only 3 minutes and 39 seconds left.
And it's counting down.
It's time to go to the air show for John Elway.
And he's got to go 85 yards to tie it.
Second down and 7 from the Broncos.
15.
Sewell and Wilhite are in the backfield.
Elway back to throw.
Getting some pressure.
Scrambling to his left across the 10 of the 15, 20, and dives forward to the 26.
The ball pops loose, but Elway recovers immediately.
And it's the first down for Denver.
Mike Johnson was there to make the tackle.
It looks like the Broncos will line up without a huddle.
We're under 3, just about under 3 minutes.
They gain to the 25-yard line.
Cleveland leading 20 to 13.
It's a fast Friday advance to the Super Bowl to meet the winner of today's game
between the Giants and the Redskins.
Steve Watson's foot out wide to the right, picked up by Frank Minnifield.
Sewell was in the backfield with Wilhite.
Elway with a play-action fake.
Back to throw.
Fires over the middle.
He's got Steve Sewell making a leaping catch at the 49-yard line.
And it's the first down for the Broncos near midfield.
Chris Rockins really drilled Sewell, but he made the catch.
Sewell's got those great hands.
He can play both wide receiver and he can play a back running back.
He's alternated between it all season long.
He runs down the center of the field.
And Elway with that rocket for an arm just drilled the ball to him.
That was a chunky yardage.
Now they're almost down to the 50s.
Sewell did not catch many passes in college.
He was part of a wishbone attack at Oklahoma.
Back goes Elway on first down from the 48.
Look to his right.
Guns are passed to the near sideline.
It's caught at the 40-yard line by Steve Watson.
He's hit there by Frank Minnifield.
But Elway has the Broncos moving as we get to the 2-minute mark.
And that's the 2-minute warning, but there'll be no warning when the lights go out.
Keep an Ever-Ready flashlight close at hand.
More power to look, more power to say.
More power to play, more power to sing and sing.
We sing today.
Ever-Ready, more power to the USA.
Ever-Ready makes every kind of flashlight for every kind of need.
More power to the USA.
Billy, in this scene you enter the bar, order a beer, then...
My character is a man who won't settle for less than the best.
He'd ask for Bud Light.
Billy, sweetie, boobie.
Bud Light's the light beer with a first name in days.
Charlie, Bud Light behind the bar.
I am the stickler for authenticity.
Ask for Bud Light because everything else is just a light.
Take one and action.
Or keep Bud Light.
Yes, General Washington.
How's Valley Forge?
Those redcoats are a nasty lot.
Cut beautiful.
Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, Missouri.
Mel Proctor with Dave Rowe back at Cleveland Stadium with John Elway.
How's the Denver Broncos moving down to the Cleveland 40-yard line with 2 minutes left?
Both teams have 2 timeouts remaining.
Cleveland leads 20 to 13.
Shades of the Fiesta Ball, Mel, that's what teams like.
We had the great Vinnie Testaverde and we were there and they drove down the length of the field.
It's just what it's like.
Came down to one play.
That's what this game looks as if it's coming down to.
Elway's got his team moving.
He's moved from inside his own 2-yard line.
He's now down on Cleveland's 40-yard line.
And he is throwing rockets out there for passes.
Dimension 20 is the magic number for Denver.
When they've scored 20 or more points, they've gone 12-0.
When they've scored less than 20, they're 0-5.
For the Browns, when they've scored 20 or more, they are 11-1.
And right now they lead 20 to 13.
Now what happened if both teams scored 20?
Did you ever...
Overtime.
Overtime is right.
The Browns with a double overtime last week against the Jets, the third longest game in NFL history.
Steve Watson and Vance Johnson split out wide to the far side.
Will Highton's tool was split behind Elway.
He dropped back.
A deep drop to midfield.
Steps up to elude his stock, throws long downfield, and it's incomplete as he tried to hit Vance Johnson along the near sideline at the 5-yard line.
I'll tell you, this is gut time now.
I can tell you what it's like as a player to be down there.
If you're a defensive player, every play is the most important play.
You don't want to let them score.
You realize that...
I mean, everything rides on this.
This is a trip to the Super Bowl.
You've played for 20 weeks.
You've been practicing.
You've been playing.
It's down to a minute 52 seconds.
If you're a defensive player, I'll tell you, you dig deep and you tell the character of your team right now if you're defensive.
The same thing is true on offense.
You've got to drive the ball down.
Every catch is so important.
Every block is vital.
Wow, it's just tremendous football time.
Second down and 10 for the Denver Broncos with the Cleveland 40-yard line.
Vance Johnson splits to the right.
Steve Watson is wide left.
Back goes Elway.
Getting pressure, and he is going to be shot.
Elway dropped by Dave Pizzulli at the 49-yard line.
A loss of 9 yards on the play.
Denver is going to have to call a timeout to stop the clock with a minute 47 seconds left.
That leaves them one timeout.
The Broncos call a timeout with a minute 47 remaining and Cleveland leading 20 to 13.
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Dave Pizzulli sacked John Elway for a 9-yard loss.
It will be third in 18 from the 48-yard line.
Pizzulli has replaced Bob Golick in those tackles.
Pizzulli is normally in there against the run.
That's having a passing situation. He comes up with a sack.
Golick is hurt.
Golick came to the sideline, bent over.
What a big play for John Elway and company.
I would look for him, probably go to Watson.
He's probably going to try a curl play to try to pick up about 12, 15 yards.
They need 18 yards for a first down.
The grounds have six defensive backs in the game now.
Of course, he can scramble if he's able to step up through there with that great speed he has.
He can scramble.
It may be the biggest down of the game.
Cleveland leads by seven with a minute 47 left.
The Broncos have got to convert this third down situation and it's third in 18 from the Cleveland 48.
John Elway who is tied or broken 13 Denver passing records.
Only 11 yards away from Greg Morton's career total of 11,895 yards.
He's won 34 regular season games over the last three years.
Only Dan Marino from Miami has won as many.
Shotgun formation on third in 18.
He's lost it in motion, a bad snap, but Elway takes it, drops back, fires over the middle and it's caught.
They've got the 30 yard line by Mark Jackson.
He's driven back and it'll be interesting to see what they mark his forward progress.
Looks like he's got the first down.
He does.
And Mark is forward progress about the 28.
Denver will line up without a huddle with a minute 27 left.
First down for the Broncos at the 28.
Back goes Elway.
Looks to his right and throws it out of bounds to stop the clock.
He doesn't want to have to use the timeout.
He's trying to get Watson to go down the sideline and just kind of slow down thinking that he was going to go out and then speed up.
But Watson was well covered.
It's just awfully hard to attack against these cornerbacks.
Minnifield and Dixon, they just take it away from them.
They're the top dogs so to speak on this dog defense.
And now they're going into that end zone where the dog pound is.
And you know the bones are going to rain coming out of there.
Lance Johnson, the Broncos, said he'd heard about Cleveland Stadium.
They're looking forward to 80,000 fans.
Looks up like dogs howling and barking.
Barking is just got to be a little frightening.
They're driving right toward the dog pound.
You can hear them howl from way up here in the press box.
Back goes Elway on second and ten.
A screen pass to Sewell across the 30.
25, 20.
Cups back to the 15 and down to the 14 yard line.
With a minute nine left.
He's given Denver a first down.
Cleveland leading 20 to 13.
The Broncos try to line up without a huddle again as they move to change.
First down at the 14 yard line.
Elway will stay in the shotgun.
He's got it going now.
He throws it into the end zone for Watson who makes a leaping grab.
And he's knocked out of bounds.
He made the catch out of bounds.
Well, I thought I saw a flag.
That may have been something that was thrown from the end zone.
I think it was a bone or something thrown from the end zone.
I thought it was a flag for a second.
It's a dog biscuit.
No, it was a big dog biscuit.
Those are big dogs.
Well, you hate to see that now.
You know, in fairness to the game, you don't want something like that thrown out when a wide receiver is going out for a pass.
It looks like a kennel down around the 10 yard line.
There are dog bones and biscuits all over the field.
Second and tenth in the 14 yard line.
Four wide receivers in the game for Denver.
Elway drops back.
Now he's going to run, running to his right across the 15 and the 10, slides out of bounds at the five yard line.
Mike Johnson chased him out of bounds.
Forty-two seconds left.
And he may have gotten the first down.
I don't know.
It's going to be awfully close.
He's right at the five yard line.
I think he had to go to about the four, Mel.
Maybe the four and a half.
It may be third down at about a foot.
John Elway has rushed for 58 yards this afternoon.
It'll be third down and one at the five.
Forty-two seconds left.
Denver has one timeout left.
Dan Johnson is wide to the left.
Steve Watson is wide to the right along with Sampson and Jackson.
Four wide receivers.
Elway from the shotgun.
Backpedals looking.
Fires into the end zone.
It's caught for a touchdown by Mark Jackson.
And I smell overtime as debris comes flying out of the dog pound.
Jackson, the rookie from Purdue, making a great catch and a slant over the middle in front of Chris Rockin.
And now what a throw by John Elway.
Give him some credit for that throw.
That was an unbelievable throw.
He sees Johnson when he makes that cut, and I mean he throws that thing just,
it took no time at all for that ball to get there.
If you don't get it, it's going to stick in you.
Rich Carless is never going to have a bigger kick than this.
The Elway company drove 99 yards on that drive.
That shows the character of the Denver Broncos.
Yeah, it could be actual hold for Rich Carless as he attempts to tie it at 20.
There's the snap.
The ball is spotted down and Carless' kick is good.
The Denver Broncos have tied it up.
John Elway throwing a touchdown pass to Mark Jackson.
Thomas conversion ties it at 20 with 37 seconds left.
And now a fight breaks out down near the 15-yard line.
Penalty marches are flying and they're getting into it pretty good.
We've got several fights.
I see one about the 5-yard line.
A couple guys holding each other.
Oh boy.
Well, this is usually the one where personal foul on the offense,
personal foul on the defense, and nobody suffers.
Ken Lanier of the Broncos is mixing it up with Chris Rockins
and a couple of other Browns.
The Broncos drove downfield right into the dog pound and put it in for 699 yards.
That was an unbelievable drive.
And there were two or three plays on that drive that were just critical plays.
Third downs where they picked up, remember the one that they picked up
around the 20-yard line, 18-20-yard line, which they made by the length of a football.
A 14-play, 99-yard drive.
Elway with a 5-yard toss to Mark Jackson.
And we're tied at 20 with 37 seconds left.
Cleveland has two timeouts remaining.
If you're the Denver Broncos, you do not want to kick to the dangerous kick returner
that Cleveland has, Gerald McNeil.
You just want to kick the ball to him.
He can return.
Of course, he has returned one all the way.
So you're going to probably want to squib the ball on the ground,
not give him a chance.
Gerald McNeil is the first man in the NFL to return a punt and a kickoff
or touchdown since Tony Green of the Redskins in 1978.
Number 31 on the offense, on the white.
Number 57 on the orange.
They were off-set.
Off-setting penalties.
I love that call.
And almost every time there's a fight, it's always a personal foul on the offense,
personal foul on defense, and they negate each other.
What you do is you make sure the guy swings back at you if you take the swing at him.
John Elway at his best on that touchdown drive.
That's why he has the talent that he's going to the Pro Bowl.
That's why he has that ability.
Of course, Bernie Cotar is, well, I guess you could say understudy a little bit age-wise.
He's got the ability to do the same thing with the Cleveland Browns.
He did it last week.
They were down 10 points, less than four minutes.
He drove down the field twice, scored a field goal and a touchdown,
or excuse me, a touchdown, then a field goal to tie, took him in overtime and won.
So this is everything that we expected this game to be.
Rich Carlos is set to kick off with 37 seconds left.
Gerald McNeil, Reggie Langhorn, Herman Fontaner are back deep for Cleveland.
McNeil, the deepest of the three, standing at the sixth.
He picks up a dog bone and moves it.
He won't slip on it if he prepares to run one back.
Carlos hooks the kick headed toward the far sidelines, and it's out of bounds.
A penalty coming up against Denver.
Now, you know what's interesting about right now is that the wind has just about died off down on the field.
I'm looking at the flags on the top of the goal post.
I think it's blowing every considerable direction today and we really have not been consistent.
So maybe it's taking a breather.
But anyway, if they can get this field goal, this kick is going to be kicked five yards farther back.
If McNeil can get good field position, Cozart can pick up a couple quick passes with 37 seconds.
They may get a shot with Mark Mosley kicking a long field goal.
He's got a great leg and we know that we talked about his consistency.
He has kicked field goals over 50 yards consistently and we might get a shot now.
Well, he didn't have much luck from beyond 40 yards this year.
He had no attempts from 50 yards or beyond.
It was one for five from 40 to 49 yards.
He doesn't kick the long field goal as well as he did earlier in his career.
Carlos with a line drive kick.
McNeil runs up the field and it gets by him rolling inside the 10, still trying to pick it up.
He's got it at the 5, off to the 10, heading for the near sidelines.
He's pushed out of bounds at the 14-yard line by Randy Robbins.
31 seconds left.
The Browns have two timeouts remaining.
Of course, I was referring to that half the history that he had had.
I remember he made several kicks over 50 yards,
but I think that kick just took the chance of a field goal attempt out of the realm of this game.
We're going to go to overtime with 30 seconds left.
The longest field goal of Mark Mosley's career, a 54-yarder 10 years ago against Philadelphia.
Let's pause five seconds for station identification.
25 degrees at 3 o'clock.
This is 67 W&A-Q Radio in Chicago.
Here come the Browns, moving right to left to begin the drive at their own 15.
Three wide receivers to the right side.
Bernie Kozars back to throw, setting up at the 5, a screen pass to Herman Fano.
Fano slips a tackle to 15.
He's dragged down the 19-yard line.
He wanted to get out of bounds, but was tackled by Freddie Gilbert and Simon Fletcher.
And Cleveland will call a timeout with 21 seconds left.
I love Cleveland.
Boy, that surprises me.
I'm going to be honest with you.
That surprises me.
You've got 80 yards to go.
You've got a long way.
You've only got 21 seconds.
The chances of you getting within field goal range are slim, and they call a timeout.
I don't think my chances of having a good kickoff or holding the team down there was my good defense.
There's too many things that can go wrong for an offensive unit, a fumble, a missed handoff, a bad snap.
There's just too many little things that can cause you a headache down this far down in your own territory.
But I don't know if there have ever been a playoff where we've had two overtime games by the same team.
I can't remember that happening.
My mind raced back.
Of course, I remember the Raiders won that we had several years ago.
I don't remember having one team go through back-to-back overtime games in the playoffs.
The Browns last week went double overtime to beat the Jets on a Mark Mosley field goal.
We're tied at 20 with 21 seconds left.
Each team has one timeout remaining.
Two great young quarterbacks hooked up in a shootout here at Cleveland Stadium, Bernie Kozar and John Elway.
Second down at six for the Browns, the 19-yard line.
Two tight ends and it looks like they're just going to run it out, Dave, the way they're lining up.
That's what I would do.
That's what they'll do, just going to run it out and go to overtime.
Kozar takes the snap and drops down to one knee.
They don't want to risk any sort of turnover or interception here near their own goal line.
They're just going to run it out.
I think Denver's going to use their last time out here.
That's what I was going to say. It's foolish for them to try and run this block in this situation.
Foolish for them to try to run that long ball.
Too many things can happen. You can get an interception, you can get a fumble.
You're back inside your own 10-yard line.
If you turn the ball over here, they've got a free kick and a field goal try and they're not far back.
You've just got everything against you.
I think that's what Marty Schottenheimer came up with.
The Broncos have used their last timeout.
Bernie Kozar has completed 17 of 32 passes for 253 yards and one touchdown pass has intercepted twice.
Well, we'll have an overtime ferret or so it appears.
And then after this game is completed, whenever that might be,
remember the Redskins and the Giants will be coming along from East Rutherford, New Jersey
with Don Cricky and Bob Crumpy.
All will be followed by the NFL Live here on NBC Radio.
And now I know if we get to that other game for our fans out there listening,
we'll keep you updated on that other game.
I'm sure we can flip back and forth. Maybe we can go to Bob Crumpy and Don Cricky.
We don't want our fans to not miss that game, but we've got an exciting one here, 20-20 with 11 seconds left.
The Blouse is up to the line of scrimmage, 11 seconds left.
Bernie Kozar will take the snap and wind down the final 11 seconds and will head for overtime.
Bernie drops to one knee and that should do it.
Now what we do now is we'll have a three-minute intermission at the end of the regular game
and we'll continue with 15-minute periods and you'll have two-minute intermissions between us.
So we've got an overtime game.
Thank you, Art McNally.
I just read that in the book.
So at the end of regulation, this AFC Championship game, the Denver Broncos and the Cleveland Browns are tied 20-20.
This is the NFL on NBC.
Cleveland Browns have won this class and are elected to receive to begin this overtime period to score tied 20-20.
And right now let's go to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey as the Redskins and the Giants are getting underway as we throw you to Don Cricky and Bob Crumpy.
Thank you, Mel. They are underway here at Giants Stadium on an unseasonably mild day from a temperature standpoint,
but there is an enormous wind that's going to play havoc with both teams.
The Giants have just stopped the Redskins three downs and out for the Washington offense, a punt into the wind.
It was downed on the Redskins side of the field.
Now the Giants are set to go first and 10 at their 48-yard line, a scoreless first quarter.
The Giants with their first possession, Bill Thimbs dropping to throw.
He's looking long. The wind at his back and it's overthrown.
So that's the first play for the Giants.
We'll be coming back to Giants Stadium with this NFC Championship game after things conclude in Cleveland with overtime.
Here's Mel Proctor.
All right. Thank you.
Down on the sidelines, Bernie Kosar is warming up. Score tied 20-20.
As we go to overtime, the Browns winning the toss.
They'll be receiving and defending the west goal.
The Broncos will kick off and defend the east goal.
And right now it appears that the Browns will be moving into the wind, against the wind on this drive.
I think they want the dog pound advantage.
They want to be, they want to have the dog pound at their back.
But it's really important right now that they catch this ball on the run, get good field position by McNeil,
get it out to about the 35-yard line so that they can start their drive.
You don't want to fumble this ball down here, then get held and have to punt the ball from deep in your own territory.
Browns have got an advantage right now.
They've got the ball. They've got the, they've got momentum going their way.
They've got the crowd behind them.
And they want to keep this, sustain this drive and get it going.
So it was tied 10-10 at the half. Rich Carlos kicked a 26-yard field goal for Denver in the third quarter to give the Broncos a 13-10 lead.
Then Mark Mosley booted a 26-yarder for Cleveland to tie it at 13.
The Browns took the lead on a 48-yard pass and Bernie Kozar, Bruce Brennan, to go up 20-13.
And then the Broncos with an incredible drive, beginning from their one-yard line.
They drove 99 yards on 14 plays.
John Elway hit Mark Jackson on a 5-yard touchdown pass and Rich Carlos kicked the extra point,
tied at 20. The Browns then took the ball in the next possession deep in their own territory and elected to run out the clock to send it into overtime.
First playoff meeting ever between these two teams.
Rich Carlos will kick off.
Dropping back deep for the Cleveland Browns for the Ice Cubes.
Gerald McNeil standing at the 5-yard line.
On the far side, Herman Fondo, who's had a big day, is the receiver out of the backfield.
And on the near side, Reggie Langhorn, a three-year veteran from Elizabeth City State.
The same school that produced former Eagles quarterback Johnny Walton and former Dallas Cowboys lineman Jeff Roque.
Play moving right to left as Rich Carlos will get the overtime underway.
Here's Carlos' kickoff.
High end over end kick. McNeil moves upfield, takes it to 15 straight ahead of the 20, 25, 30, and he's dropped at the 30-yard line.
A hard tackle by Ken Woodard of the Denver Broncos.
And here comes Bernie Kozar.
Now for young Mr. Kozar, it's important, don't panic, don't try to get it all at one time.
Move down the far outfield, keep good offensive continuity, use the run a little bit.
It's a whole new ball game.
Don't make a mistake. That's what costs overtime victories or losses, I should say.
It's overtime mistakes where you fumble the ball, throw an interception, get bad field positions.
Reggie Langhorn is wide to the right.
Clarence Weathers went out to the far side along with Herman Fontenot. Kevin Mack is the lone back for the Cleveland Browns.
Kozar will throw on first down, drops back, looks to his left, nothing there.
Now he's in trouble, scrambles up the middle, and he's stopped at the 31-yard line by Roulon Jones.
A gain of only a yard.
I think he kept his great rushing average alive there. He rushed for about.8 yards, which is his season average.
But he came down, he had to, at least he had the foresight not to force the ball into coverage.
When he went to those left, it was well covered. He came back to his right, they were well covered.
He just decided he was going to run the ball.
A lot of young quarterbacks in experience would have tried to force the ball in there. He did not.
He's working against the third-best defense in the AFC during the regular season.
Second down and nine for Kozar.
Brian Brennan is in motion, back goes Kozar, setting up at the 20, looks right, fires to Brennan.
And he's pulled out of bounds at the 38-yard line by Tony Lilly.
Brian Brennan, who had 55 receptions during the regular season, not very big at 5'9", 178, very tough, fearless.
He'll go over the middle and catch a pass and take a hit. Got great hands.
Now to be compared in the same breath with Steve Large and shows the ability that he has and the respect that the Cleveland Browns have for him.
He is that type of a, that type of a player. He can just go down there and it's, like you say, fearless.
We understand that Raul Alegre has just kicked a 47-yard field goal to give the Giants a 3-0 lead over the Washington Redskins in the AFC Championship game at Giants Stadium.
Third down, two for the Cleveland Browns at their 38-yard line.
Kozar on the handoff to Herman Fontenot running to his right and he does not have the first down, stops the line of scrimmage by Carl Mecklenburg.
A 230-pounder from Minnesota who began his collegiate career at County Augustana College,
felt that he needed a bigger challenge, transferred to Minnesota, played on a losing team where he was used primarily as a pass rusher,
and was not selected by Denver until the 12th round of the 1983 draft.
Jeff Gossett is in to punt. Gerald Willhite is back deep for Denver for the Browns, unable to move on their first drive.
Gossett's kick is a high kick, short kick. Willhite takes it to 21, trips and stumbles, and he's dropped at the 25-yard line by Felix Wright of Cleveland.
And now it's John Elway's turn, a 42-yard kick.
And now Elway has the same problem as Kozar. They both have the same situation. Don't panic.
There's so many young quarterbacks, and both these are young quarterbacks, even though Elway has a couple more years experience.
If you get into a situation like this, you haven't been in it, you know the importance of a game.
Sometimes you try to force the ball, but Elway did so well on that last drive, I don't think he will.
First time for Denver to Bronco 25. T. Sewell is in motion.
The Broncos stay on the ground as a handoff goes to Sammy Winder straight ahead to the 30-yard line, a 5-yard pick-up.
Last week against New England, Elway was forced to go to a running attack in the second half because he sprained his ankle in the first half,
had difficulty setting up on his throws, had difficulty running himself, so he headed off with running back quite effectively.
That was the big key that Broncos win. Second and five from the 30.
Vance Johnson comes in motion. Elway's back to throw on second and five.
Fires for Orson Mobley, and he makes the grab at midfield for a Denver first down.
Brought down from behind by Ray Ellis of Cleveland, the big tight end, Orson Mobley, a 256-pound rookie from Salem College.
Well, a lot of people we've talked in the past about him being compared to Riley Odom, the great tight end for the Denver Broncos.
He showed why. 256 pounds and he's downfield, 25 yards running, man-to-man coverage with the safety, comes down with a big catch.
Mobley stays in the game and gets two tight ends, Mobley and Clarence K.
Watson and Johnson have split left the pitch to Sammy Weiner running to his left,
nearly clapping his own backfield and he manages to get out of bounds with a 50-yard line, but he'll lose two yards.
Frank Minnifield drove him out of bounds, but he was almost dropped for a bigger loss by Sam Clancy, who had him in the backfield, but he was able to get away.
Well, he's got that great upper body strength and he just stiff-armed the defensive back as he came up. If he doesn't do that, he loses about an extra five or six yards.
Big play for John Elway and company, second down, about second down and 13 yards to go. They need to have a safe pass, but they need to have a complete pass.
Rich Collins' range is about 45 yards, although he has kicked a 51-yarder this year.
It's the longest field goal of his career, came in the first game against the Raiders.
On second and 12, a deep drop by Elway, a screen pass, incomplete incentive for Steve Sewell and nearly intercepted by big Sam Clancy.
What a play by Sam Clancy. Now, he's the defensive tackle. He's rushing in there. All of a sudden he sees the screen. What does he do?
Stop rushing the quarterback, fielders out, he gets that big hand up in there and he almost comes down with the biggest play of his young career.
He goes through his right in the middle of the screen when Elway had to throw it over there. Fortunately for Denver, he overthrew Sam Clancy.
Third down and 12 for the Broncos at midfield. Mark Jackson is wide to the right. Steve Watson advanced Justin to wide to the left.
John Elway sends Justin in motion. Elway retreats inside his 40, getting a lot, steps up, now scrambling to his left across the 40, 45, throws down field and is caught at the 22-yard line by Steve Watson.
But it looked like Elway might have been past the line of scrimmage. Oh, it was awfully close. He was right on the line of scrimmage.
I don't think they're going to call him past the line of scrimmage. He was right on the line of scrimmage when he pulled the ball down.
He had both the run and the pass option and he decided to just pull up short and flip that ball over there. What a big catch by Steve Watson.
Wow. Every play is a big play in this game. It kind of stuns the crowd because now they're in Rich Carless' field goal range.
The game to the 22-yard line of Cleveland. The score tied 20-20 in overtime.
Lance Johnson is in the game now. He flips out wide to the right. Lance Johnson is wide to the left and Elway is going to call a timeout.
They have been called by Cleveland. Timeout, Cleveland. Yep, Brown's called a timeout. Well, you can't take them with you.
So we've got a timeout with 11-03 remaining in overtime. It's Denver 20 and Cleveland 20.
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The Denver Broncos have a first down for Cleveland 42 with 1103 remaining in overtime. The score tied 20-20.
The Broncos are already within Rich Carlos field goal range during the regular season. He was 8 for 8 from 30 to 39 yards out.
You're looking at a 39-yard field goal right now.
Yeah, but what they want to do is they don't want to try a 39-yard field goal.
What they're going to try to do is try to drive the ball down. I would look for them to run at least two times, try to get safe position right in the middle of the field.
Then if they don't make it, maybe go to a safe pass. Elway swinging one of the backs out of the back way.
Out of the backfield. Nothing to threaten the situation or throw a possible interception.
Then if they don't make it, then bring in Carlos. But I would think they're going to try to keep this drive alive.
It's not time to bring them in yet.
Then Sampson's foot's out wide to the right. Vance Johnson is wide to the left.
K and Orson Mobley, two tight ends in the game. Sammy Winder's alone setback. Mobley is in motion left to right.
Elway gives the winder, sliding to his right inside the 20, drives out of the 16-yard line.
The game is 6 yards on the play as Anthony Griggs, the right inside linebacker, made the tackle.
And now when he carried that ball that time, he had both arms wrapped around that ball, keeping it in tight.
Don't fumble. Just drive the ball down now. They just want to get good field goal position.
And listen to this, 80,000 people and not one of them is saying a word.
Sam Plancy replaces Anthony Griggs on defense for Cleveland. Second down and 5 in the 17-yard line.
Elway on the give. The winder straight ahead. Hit and drop.
That about the line of scrimmage, the 16.
A reminder that the executive producer of NBC Radio Sports is Jack O'Rourke.
The game has been produced and directed by Fred Posner. The associate producer is Len Weiner.
Production assistant Eric Spitz. Engineering provided by Larry Schmiggen here in Cleveland.
By Mark Bracker, Stuart Bell, and Joe Albig in New York.
Griggs is back in on defense for the Browns. Third down, 4 from the 16-yard line.
They don't get it here. They'll go for a field goal.
Mobley is in motion. Elway gives the winder, sliding right, runs right up the back of Keith Bishop,
and he's dropped for no gain. And now it's time for Rich Carlos to come on to try to win this football game.
This will be about a 33-yard attempt for Carlos. As I mentioned, he is 8 for 8 from 30 to 39 yards out.
He's kicked two field goals today.
Now we'll look for Cleveland to maybe call timeout, make him think about it a little bit more.
They're lining up, but now if you're a good defensive unit, you say, hey, wait a minute, timeout, we want timeout.
Let him think about it. Let him concentrate. Let him worry about it a little bit.
Gary Kubiak will hold. Keith Bishop will center the football as the Denver Broncos try to win it in overtime.
A 33-yard attempt by Rich Carlos.
The barefoot kicker from the University of Cincinnati trying to break a 20-all tie.
The ball spotted down. The kick is on the way, and it is good, and the Denver Broncos have won it.
The dog pound is silent as the Denver Broncos storm onto the field.
Rich Carlos' field goal gives the Broncos a win in overtime, 23-20.
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This is Mel Proctor for Dave Rose. Thanks so long from Municipal Stadium in Cleveland.
The final score in overtime, the Denver Broncos, 23, and the Cleveland Browns, 20.
Coming up next, the Redskins and the Giants for the NFC Championship. This is the NFL on NBC.