Written by Greg Popelka

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So it’s after the latest Browns- Bengals game, and I am sitting here with a slight hangover.

Nah, I haven’t had a drop of alcohol. Back in the day, I sure did. I dialed it down on Browns’ game day to about one beer per quarter once the kids were born (sitting here on the north side of 50, that sounds like a lot). But after a Browns loss, the early onset hangovers on Sunday night just crushed me. The most relaxing portion of many of my weekends was wrecked.

So I stopped having drinks before and during games. If the Browns found a way to win, I’d possibly celebrate by cracking open a couple. Funny how hangovers aren’t a factor when awash in the glow of victory. That’s where I am today. No win today = no drinks.

But the vague presence of a hangover headache hovers anyway. Its center is at the base of my skull, spreading forward toward my eyes. It’s just the residual side effect of the tense posture I’d assumed for most of the afternoon.

I’d mowed the lawn, and gone for a run, prior to sitting still for the game. I was expecting a loss; why wouldn’t I be? There was no rational foundation for optimism. I was prepared – The Cleveland Fans’ Browns writers (I’ve come here first for my Cleveland sports info since 2006) had sufficiently outlined the matchups, and managed my expectations.

But my Browns were facing the Bengals. And I live in Cincinnati. Back in the 1980s, I mixed it up with those Bengal fans. To them, my allegiance to the Browns was my very identity. (I hear from those who are proud of being lifelong Clevelanders. Rightly so- good for them. Just a quick point, though: we ex-pats are your ambassadors. We are out on the front lines, preaching Cleveland sports. It’s a labor of love, but we do pay our dues! ...Hmm. Come to think of it, in this post-expansion era, the front lines may be described as having drifted up to the doorstep of the North Coast. So never mind.)

So, when it came to smack-talking Bengals fans, I engaged: I took nothing without giving it back. I matched them barb for barb; disingenuous exaggeration for disingenuous exaggeration.

• “The Browns are as popular in Cincinnati as the Bengals” (The Browns were much better then. And, the 40+ yr olds at the time grew up rooting for Cleveland, since there was no Bengals until Art Modell fired Paul Brown in the 1960s.)
• “Everything about the Bengals are a cheap imitation, mostly of the Cleveland Browns.” (Still true.)
• “Fan support for the Browns has far more depth than for the Bengals.” (Nope, cannot prove it. Too bad.)
• “Our rival is not Cincinnati. It’s Pittsburgh. You have a rivalry with Browns fans who live in Cincinnati, period. People in Cleveland are surprised when I tell them Cincinnati dislikes them. Cleveland cares about Cincinnati like Cincinnati cares about Toledo. “ (A completely dismissive shot.)
• "Orange and Brown are the colors of fall. Orange and Black is for Halloween."
• “I really like NFL tradition. The Browns embody tradition. The Bengals? The Cleveland Indians have more tradition than the Bengals.” (This one scored direct hits, since the Indians were awful. I often saved this one, only using it if truly needed- or for the knockout blow.)

 

All rivalries fade if the games are not competitive. Like the rivalry between The Ohio State University and Wittenberg University (in Springfield, northeast of Dayton). Beginning in 1893, Witt won 3 of the first 4 games they played against each other. However, that would be it. They’d lose the next (and final) 11, the last in 1929. The combined score of those 11 games was 387 – 0. Rivalry over.

The Browns-Bengals rivalry took a major hit, as well. Of course, the Browns being ripped out of Ohio by its roots by scheming owner Art Modell was an unmitigated, appalling disaster. Then, the replacement Browns expansion team has agonized through a period of historic futility. Nothing new to any reader of this article. Nowadays, on most fall Fridays I’ll watch our fledgling high school football program (coached by ex-Bengal David Fulcher) suffer through a long night, before enjoying a dominant performance by our older daughter’s college on Saturdays. That would be Division III Wittenberg. Witt and the Bucks do a fine job of bridging the time it’s taking for the Browns to become relevant again. God bless Jim Tressel, and God bless Urban Meyer.

But this season, Bengals’ ticket ads do not even mention the Browns- for the first time ever. After formerly being the most hyped game on their schedule. This rivalry is dead. Let’s at least call it utterly dormant. Although it is never wise to trust a Bengals fan to remain friendly forever.

I thought it would be fun to relive perhaps the Browns’ finest game in the history of the rivalry.

In 1986, promising second-year quarterback Bernie Kosar was exploding into national prominence. With respected coordinator Lindy Infante spearheading the offense, Kosar had the talent to use his system to exploit defenses. He finished the season with 17 touchdown passes and only 10 interceptions.

Interestingly, Lindy Infante and Bill Walsh each was an understudy to the great Paul Brown in Cincinnati- Walsh through 1975 and Infante a few years later. They each developed a system that asked the quarterback to read the defense and switch to a play that could exploit it. I am not an Xs and Os guy, but Walsh emphasized horizontal receiver routes, while Infante featured more of a vertical game- along with both the quarterback and receivers being required to read the defense after the snap. Some believe Walsh’s West Coast Offense (coined by Bernie Kosar) came from Paul Brown, but that is not true- and anyway, Brown had always been reticent to allow a quarterback to call plays (he was sure he was smarter than any of his players).

Brian Brennan’s 55 catches led a wide receiver group that also boasted Webster Slaughter and Reggie Langhorne. The “Wizard of Oz”, Ozzie Newsome, was the man at tight end. Due in part to injuries, the 1986 Browns didn’t run the ball like they did the prior season (in which Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner each gained over 1000 yards), but Mack did score 10 rushing touchdowns. The offensive line was strong- it would take a few seasons of front office neglect before it exposed Kosar to debilitating injuries.

On defense, the line was strong, with ends Reggie Camp, “Big Daddy” Hairston, and Sam Clancy along with tackles Bob Golic and Dave Puzzuoli. The linebacking crew boasted Clay Matthews, Chip Banks, Mike Johnson, and Eddie Johnson. The defensive backfield was the class of the NFL, with Hanford Dixon and Frank Minnifield as dual shut-down cornerbacks. The original Dawgs (back when it was fresh).

The tragic off-season cocaine-related death of sky’s-the-limit safety Don Rogers (eight days after Boston Celtics draft pick Len Bias similarly died) did provide a sobering backdrop to the season.

Of note, the Browns of this era benefitted from the breakup of the rival USFL. Players picked up as free agents from that league included Mike Johnson, Mack, Minnifield, OL Dan Fike, and KR Gerald “Ice Cube” McNeil.

On that December 13 game on the carpet-covered concrete of Riverfront Stadium, the Cincinnati fans were prepared for a repeat of the matchup in Cleveland earlier that year. The Bengals had won, 30-13, and led by their offense, they carried themselves with the swagger of QB Boomer Esiason and WR Cris Collinsworth, of RB James Brooks and WR Eddie Brown. Head coach Sam Wyche was the off-the-rails head offensive innovator whose character the team adopted.

The Browns were 10-4, and a win would clinch the division, with a chance to play for home field throughout the playoffs. Their previous three games included home wins over division rivals Pittsburgh Steelers and the Houston Oilers. Marty Schottenheimer was the steady, defensive minded head coach.

I was nervous.

At a boisterous watch party where my brother and I were the only Browns fans, we began to calm down as the Bengals kicked off. On the first play from scrimmage, Kosar went up top, down the right sideline, and connected with Langhorne for 66 yards. That quieted the crowd. Shortly thereafter- on third down- Mack took it in for the touchdown (Mack fumbled on first down, but Fike recovered).

Cincinnati was shocked. Players, fans, friends.

The dangerous Bengals immediately marched 76 yards before settling for a Jim Breech field goal. Throughout the day, the Browns applied pressure to Esiason with various linebacker and safety blitzes. Schottenheimer would later describe the dictating of the action with pride (he would notably abandon such play at key times in the playoffs, weeks later).

The Browns upped the score to 14-3 on a Kosar-to-Slaughter pass of 47 yards. A Mark Mosely field goal (Matt Bahr was injured from tackling a returner in an earlier game) pushed it to 17-3 at the half.

The home crowd was worried.

Sam Wyche saw his offense come out after halftime, and quickly move the ball to the Browns’ 28 yard line. S Chris Rockins then dropped a sure interception. On the next play, Brooks was stopped at the line. (Clay Matthews and James Brooks had some great battles over the years. Sometimes, Brooks got the best of the Browns’ linebacker. On his next carry, Matthews was liable to stack up the running back out in space, and with a free arm, repeatedly rake upward at the ball a la rock guitarist Pete Townshend, trying for the strip.)

It was here that Wyche lost patience. On 4^th and 6- still early in the third- he went for it. Esiason dropped back, threw to Brown, who dropped the ball.

S Ray Ellis would later comment that it appeared as though the life had been sucked out of the Bengals. Their play the rest of the way was characterized by poor punts and turnovers. On one interception, an Esiason pass intended for Collinsworth was picked off by S Felix Wright (photo). Dixon intercepted another pass, later noting that Esiason didn’t read coverages well.

Asexpected, it was a day for swagger- just not from the expected principals. Cincinnati limped off to lick its wounds, while the Browns celebrated the division clinch with locker room cigars.

A week later, the Cincinnati Bengals would await the results of the Monday Night Football game, to see whether they would make the playoffs. A camera was trained on Esiason and Collinsworth, at a local Cincinnati watering hole. ABC cut to the players throughout the game. Suitably smug over their 10-6 record, the players withered over the course of the night until it was clear. No playoffs for the Bengals.

Where was the fans’ eagerness to talk football?

“Bartender, can I get a pitcher, please?”

Thank you for reading. Sources included The Plain Dealer game database on Cleveland.com, Wikipedia, footballdb.com, The Cincinnati Enquirer.

 

Below: Minnifield and Dixon.