Brian Sipe of playoff-bound Browns passes for 349 yards and four touchdowns -- the last one a game-winner to Ozzie Newsome -- against a Steelers team missing five future Hall of Famers with injuries.
Usually, things clicked between Browns receiver Dave Logan (85) and quarterback Brian Sipe (17), like in the 27-26, 1980 win over the Steelers, when Logan caught eight Sipe passes for 131 yards. By Mike Peticca, Plain Dealer Reporter
Game story by Russell Schneider, Plain Dealer
Cleveland, Ohio -- All four teams in the American Football Conference Central Division championship race were in contention when the Pittsburgh Steelers visited the Cleveland Browns on Oct. 26, 1980.
Plain Dealer reporter Russell Schneider wrote the story (to follow) describing the Browns' 27-26 win.
Going into the game, the Steelers had won 13 of the last 15 contests between the teams. The Browns' two wins were by five and two points. In the Steelers' 13 wins, they scored an average of 31.5 points and held the Browns to an average of 16.
The Browns had not been to the playoffs since 1972. Since then, Pittsburgh had won four Super Bowls: in the 1974, 1975, 1978 and 1979 seasons.
But, the Browns had at least a couple things going for them.
Quarterback Brian Sipe, leader of the Browns' "Kardiac Kids," was in the midst of a season for which he would be named the NFL's MVP. This game would be one of his greatest.
And, amazingly, the Steelers would play the game without five injured players who would make the Hall of Fame.
Three weeks later, on Nov. 16, 1980, the Browns lost at Pittsburgh, 16-13; Pittsburgh having all but one of the injured, future Hall of Famers back.
The Browns went on to win the Central Divison with an 11-5 record. They lost to the eventual champion Oakland Raiders, 14-12, in a divisional playoff game on Jan. 4, 1981: the infamous "Red Right 88" game when Oakland's Mike Davis intercepted a Sipe pass in the Raiders' end zone with 49 seconds left.
Pittsburgh finished 9-7 and didn't make the playoffs for the first time since 1971.
The Plain Dealer's Browns history database features PD stories on every Browns regular season and playoff game in the team's history. Click on to the highlighted game result for The Plain Dealer game stories. Click on to highlighted dates, players and teams for game box scores and player and team details, via Pro-Football-Reference.com.
The game story, as the Browns defeat the Steelers, 27-26, on Oct. 26, 1980:
By Russell Schneider
The Plain Dealer
Oct. 26, 1980
Sam Rutigliano says he now knows the Browns are "pointed in the right direction." And there were 79,095 fans at the stadium yesterday - plus the Pittsburgh Steelers - who would have to agree.
In another amazing comeback that overcame several costly mistakes, the Browns beat the Steelers, 27-26, to remain in a tie - with Houston - for first place in the Central Division of the American Conference.
The Oilers beat Cincinnati, 23-3, so now Houston and the Browns are tied with 5-3 records. Pittsburgh is third at 4-4, and the Bengals are 3-5.
Brian Sipe, the intrepid Browns quarterback who has been nothing less than sensational for most of this season, engineered the victory. It was the Browns' third in a row and only their first over the Steelers in seven games dating back to 1976.
Sipe passed for 349 yards and all four touchdowns. He completed 28 of 46 aerials behind splendid protection by the Browns' offensive line.
Dave Logan and Greg Pruitt were the leading receivers, each hauling in eight passes, Logan for 131 yards, and Pruitt for 71 yards and two touchdowns. Pruitt was starting for the first time since suffering a knee injury that required surgery a year ago today.
The Steelers played without five regulars, including quarterback Terry Bradshaw. Cliff Stoudt, who grew up in Oberlin and starred at Youngstown State, replaced Bradshaw. And despite Bradshaw's ability, it's doubtful that he could have done a better job then Stoudt this time.
Stoudt completed 18 of 37 passes for 310 yards, and was effective until the final minutes of the bruising battle, played on a soggy field that was made muddier by a cold rain that fell most of the day.
Other regulars who could not play for the Steelers were fullback Franco Harris, middle linebacker Jack Lambert and wide receivers John Stallworth and Lynn Swann.
Their replacements performed creditably, especially Jim Smith and Theo Bell, who played in place of Stallworth and Swann and caught eight passes for 200 yards between them.
Sipe suffered another injury, this one to his right shoulder. But it should not cause him to miss any playing time.
When it was over, Sipe breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Beating the Steelers is like getting something very important out of the way. It should make us an even better team.
"We've just beaten probably the best team in the National Football League and are right where we want to be. We have picked ourselves up after a rough start and we've earned the position we're in.
"Now, I really don't think there's any team that can stop us."
As for his "relief," Sipe said, "We kissed off a lot of opportunities, but we fought back from adversity, and that makes this (victory) all the sweeter."
Indeed, the Browns didn't help themselves in the early going, which is what Rutigliano meant when he said, "We did a number of things where somebody would look back and say 'We should have won a lot easier.' "
The Steelers turned a pass interception by Ron Johnson into a 7-0 lead, and then capitalized on a bad snap from center Gerry Sullivan to punter Johnny Evans for a field goal that made it 10-0 in the first quarter.
The Browns fought back with a touchdown early in the second period, but Matt Bahr kicked another field goal to give the Steelers a 13-7 halftime margin.
A fumble by Mike Pruitt opened the door to another Pittsburgh touchdown six minutes into the third quarter, increasing the Browns' deficit to 20-7 - and dimming the hopes of most of the fans, if not the Cleveland players who have grown accustomed to Sipe's ability to pull games out of the fire.
The two teams traded touchdowns before the third period ended, but the Browns still trailed by 12 points, 26-14, as the fourth quarter got underway.
Then, so did the Browns' comeback, first on a 73-yard drive that culminated in Greg Pruitt's second touchdown pass reception, a 7-yarder at the 5:39 mark. The game-winner was an 18-yard aerial from Sipe to Ozzie Newsome with 5:38 left on the clock.
It turned out that Bahr's missed conversion after the Steelers' last touchdown was critical. The ball hooked off Bahr's foot and hit the left upright of the goal post, falling outside.
Don Cockroft's extra-point kick, following the Browns' second-last touchdown, also missed. But he was perfect after Newsome's touchdown to break the 26-26 tie.
But the victory wasn't achieved without an outstanding, last-minute effort by the defense, spearheaded by cornerback Ron Bolton.
The Steelers took over on their own 16, following the kickoff after Newsome's go-ahead touchdown. Stoudt was incomplete with three passes and the Steelers had to punt.
Now the Browns got the ball on their own 49 with 4:52 to go, but couldn't sustain a drive and also had to punt after three plays. So the Steelers got another chance from their own 20 with 3:53 on the clock.
Now Stoudt connected on three passes for 20 yards. But Bolton made a good play on a second-and-5 situation, and then intercepted the next aerial by Stoudt. It was intended for Smith. Bolton picked it off at the Cleveland 41, and the Browns were in command once again with 1:57 remaining.
They tried to wind down the clock, and did so until only 24 seconds were left. Then Evans, who had a good day, punted from the Steelers' 42 into the end zone, and Stoudt was given two more chances.
He was sacked on his first attempt, though it appeared that Bolton had made another interception on the play. And then, with the clock down to four seconds, Stoudt found Smith on a 34-yarder - but the Browns stopped him, and the game ended with the Steelers at their own 47.
Bedlam broke loose and the Browns whooped and hollered all the way into their locker room.
"The time you know you are pointed in the right direction is when you have to go uphill as we did today," said Rutigliano afterward. "And this is just the beginning for us. We've got a helluva long road ahead of us, and we've got to take them one at a time and savor this one."