1974 Cleveland Browns season

Last updated
1974 Cleveland Browns season
Owner Art Modell
Head coach Nick Skorich
Home field Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Local radio WHK
Results
Record4–10
Division place4th AFC Central
Playoff finishDid not qualify
Pro Bowlers None

The 1974 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 29th season, and 25th season with the National Football League.

Contents

The 1974 Browns were only the second Browns team to post a losing record in the 29-year history of the franchise. [1]

Season summary

The Browns finished 4–10 that year and did not look good doing it. All those great players who had led the Browns to much success through the 1960s and the early part of the '70s, either had retired or were ready to do so. And, as mentioned, since the Browns had been picking at the tail end of the draft for so long, they had little in the way of reinforcements to step into those stars' shoes.

With the exception of the Denver Broncos, who had a modest 7–6–1 record, none of the teams the Browns defeated in 1974 finished above .500. The Browns topped the Broncos 23–21 by scoring two unanswered touchdowns at the end of the game behind a backup third year quarterback by the name of Brian Sipe, out of San Diego State, who the Browns drafted in the thirteenth round of the 1972 draft, and had been on the team's taxi squad during his first two seasons with the team. They beat the 7–7 Houston Oilers 20–7, the 7–7 New England Patriots 21–14 and the 6–8 San Francisco 49ers 7–0 in a tundra-like setting after one of the worst snowstorms in Northeast Ohio history.

Otherwise, it wasn't good. The Browns offense couldn't score enough points behind the direction of quarterback Mike Phipps, taken with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1970 NFL Draft that was acquired when the club dealt HOF wide receiver Paul Warfield to the Miami Dolphins. And the defense had trouble stopping people. The Browns got off to a 1–5 start, getting humbled 33–7 by the Cincinnati Bengals in—by far—the most lopsided opening-day loss in franchise history to that point—and losing by 22 points (29–7) to the St. Louis Cardinals and by 16 (40–24) to the Oakland Raiders. They also were thumped by 24 (41–17) by the Dallas Cowboys in the next-to-last game of the season.

But pride is a hard thing to totally extinguish. The Browns players left from those great teams still had it, and despite the lack of overall talent on the club, it helped them to stay close in some other games.

They gave the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers all they could handle in both meetings, losing 20–16 and 26–16, lost by 10 points (34–24) in the rematch with the Bengals, fell by five (15–10) to the 9–5 Buffalo Bills, lost 36–35 to the San Diego Chargers when Sipe fumbled the snap as the club was positioning the ball in the middle of the field for Don Cockroft to kick a game-winning field goal on the final play, and were beaten by four (28–24) in the rematch with the Oilers in the season finale.

On the season as a whole, the Browns started games well and ended them well, being outscored just 62–61 in the first quarter and outscoring their foes 73–63 in the fourth. But in the middle two quarters combined, they were out-done by a whopping 219–117 count, and therein lies most of the reason why they gave up 344 points, the most in team history at the time.

Offseason

NFL Draft

The following were selected in the 1974 NFL Draft.

RoundOverallPlayerPositionSchool/Club Team
240 Billy Corbett Offensive tackle Johnson C. Smith
5118 Mark Ilgenfritz Defensive end Vanderbilt
6146 Billy Pritchett Running back West Texas A&M
7163Bob HerrickWide receiver Purdue
7171 Gerry Sullivan Offensive tackle Illinois
8199 Eddie Brown Defensive back Tennessee
9224Dan ScottGuard Ohio State
10238Mike PuestowWide receiver North Dakota State
11274Tom GoodenKicker Harding
12302Ron McNeilDefensive end North Carolina Central
13327 Mike Siefert Defensive end Wisconsin
14352 Bob Hunt Running back Heidelberg
15380Ransom TerrellLinebacker Arizona
16407 Preston Anderson Defensive back Rice
17430Carlton BuchananDefensive tackle SW Oklahoma

[2]

Exhibition schedule

WeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendance
1August 2at Los Angeles Rams L 21–240–1 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 28,021
2August 12 San Francisco 49ers W 21–201–1 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 24,008
3August 17vs. Baltimore Colts L 3–371–2 Tampa Stadium 25,116
4August 24 Washington Redskins L 17–201–3 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 44,528
5September 1vs. Cincinnati Bengals W 21–172–3 Ohio Stadium 36,326
6September 7at Detroit Lions L 7–212–4 Tiger Stadium 42,905

Regular season

Schedule

WeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendanceGame Recap
1September 15at Cincinnati Bengals L 7–330–1 Riverfront Stadium 53,113 Recap
2September 22 Houston Oilers W 20–71–1 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 58,988 Recap
3September 29at St. Louis Cardinals L 7–291–2 Busch Memorial Stadium 43,472 Recap
4October 6 Oakland Raiders L 24–401–3Cleveland Municipal Stadium65,247 Recap
5October 13 Cincinnati Bengals L 24–341–4Cleveland Municipal Stadium70,897 Recap
6October 20at Pittsburgh Steelers L 16–201–5 Three Rivers Stadium 48,100 Recap
7October 27 Denver Broncos W 23–212–5Cleveland Municipal Stadium60,478 Recap
8November 3at San Diego Chargers L 35–362–6 San Diego Stadium 36,631 Recap
9November 10at New England Patriots W 21–143–6 Schaefer Stadium 61,279 Recap
10November 17 Pittsburgh Steelers L 16–263–7Cleveland Municipal Stadium77,739 Recap
11November 24 Buffalo Bills L 10–153–8Cleveland Municipal Stadium66,504 Recap
12December 1 San Francisco 49ers W 7–04-8Cleveland Municipal Stadium24,559 Recap
13December 7at Dallas Cowboys L 17–414-9 Texas Stadium 48,754 Recap
14December 15at Houston Oilers L 24–284–10 Astrodome 37,910 Recap

Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Standings

AFC Central
WLTPCTDIVCONFPFPASTK
Pittsburgh Steelers 1031.7504–27–3–1305189W2
Houston Oilers 770.5004–27–4236282W1
Cincinnati Bengals 770.5003–35–6283259L3
Cleveland Browns 4100.2861–53–8251344L2

Personnel

Staff / Coaches

1974 Cleveland Browns staff
Front office

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches


Roster

1974 Cleveland Browns roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive Linemen

Defensive Linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special Teams

Rookies in italics

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References

  1. ↑ The other was the 1956 team
  2. ↑ "1974 NFL Draft Listing – Pro-Football-Reference.com". Pro-Football-Reference.com . Archived from the original on 2009-05-31. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
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