1967 Blues for the Browns

[Saban1]

After Cleveland lost the Eastern Conference playoff to the Dallas Cowboys, 52 to 14, in 1967, Coach Collier told his players that there could be some changes made. He was right. There were 9 different starters toward the end of the 1968 season. No longer starting then were:

1. Frank Ryan

2. Ernie Green

3. Gary Collins

4. Catfish Smith

5. John Wooten

6. Bill Glass

7. Paul Wiggin

8. John Brewer

9. Ross Fichtner

Of course, Gary Collins was injured in 1968 and returned to the starting lineup in 1969. Milt Morin was supposed to be the starting tight end in 1967, but was injured and replaced by Catfish Smith that year. Morin returned in 1968 and became a star tight end. Paul Wiggin retired after the 1967 season and John Brewer was traded to New Orleans, which was near the part of the country where he was from.

Don Cockroft replaced both Lou Groza as place kicker and Gary Collins as punter in 1968. Ernie Green was injured in 1968 and retired after that season.

[Saban1]

To say who started in place of the 9 missing starters from 1967 in 1968, here they are:

1. Bill Nelson for Ryan at QB.

2. Charlie Harraway for Green at FB.

3. Eppie Barney for Collins at flanker.

4. Milt Morin for Smith at TE.

5. John DeMarie for Wooten at LG.

6. Ron Snidow for Wiggin at LDE.

7. Jack Gregory for Glass at RDE.

8. Dale Lindsey for Brewer at RLB.

9. Bob Matheson for Lindsey at MLB.

10. Mike Howell for Fichtner at RS.

11. Ben Davis for Howell at RCB.

Actually, Mike Howell and Dale Lindsey were just moved to different positions and were replaced at their positions by Ben Davis and Bob Matheson, who were both in their second seasons with Cleveland. Don Cockroft took up the punting and kicking chores for Collins and Groza. I guess that the changes were for the better for the most part as the Browns beat Dallas in the 1968 Eastern Conference Championship game, 31 to 20, which was quite an improvement over the same game in 1967, which Dallas won 52 to 14.

[Brian wolf]

Browns were dumb letting Warfield, Gregory and Matheson go.
Let Harraway go to the Skins.

[Saban1]

That was their owner, Art Modell. After he fired Paul Brown, he hired Blanton Collier to coach only, but he ran the team, and made the trades.

[Saban1]

Modell also traded Ron Johnson and Jim Kanicki to the Giants in 1970 for Homer Jones in an effort to try to replace Paul Warfield.

[Saban1]

The trade of Johnson and Kanicki also turned out to be a bad trade. Homer Jones had lost some of his speed, according to Fran Tarkenton. Ron Johnson could have been a big help to Cleveland in the years that Leroy Kelly was past his prime. Jim Kanicki only played a couple of years for the Giants, but really helped them in 1970.

[Brian wolf]

Like I had mentioned on an earlier post, when the Browns traded Warfield, they thought they were set with Homer Jones and Fair Hooker at receiver but Jones was a major disappointment. In NY he stayed healthy and got by running off-schedule routes when Tarkenton scrambled but in Cleveland he needed to run disciplined routes for a pocket passer like Nelson and wasnt nearly as successful. Once he got hurt, he decided to retire. Had he had at least two more successful seasons with the Browns, with the same production he had in NY, he might have had a case for the HOF but exciting or not, his career didnt go long enough.

Fair Hooker--what a name--had big play ability as well but couldnt catch enough passes. I wasnt sure if his hands were suspect or was used more as a decoy but never developed enough for Nelson or Phipps. After scoring a late TD against the Dolphins in the 1972 playoffs, Hooker had to watch as the man he replaced in Cleveland, Paul Warfield, caught passes to help the Dolphins win the game and stay unbeaten.

[Saban1]

I guess that when Art Modell traded Warfield to Miami for Mike Phipps, it was the beginning of the end for the Cleveland Browns as far as being a championship contender in the NFL. Paul Brown was right. Modell was a non-football person trying to succeed at something in which he knew nothing about. He should have let the professionals run the team.

[Saban1]

Back to 1967: Cleveland had to struggle in so many of their games, not including the games that they looked really bad in. Then there were the Cardinals games, the Vikings, the Redskins, The Giants games (oh yeah, they lost one of them). Every team has a bad day sometimes, but the Browns looked very bad against Green Bay, Dallas, and even Detroit, a losing team.

It was the first time that Cleveland ever lost twice in one year where the other teams scored over 50 points. Don't know if that has ever happened since, even with the so-called "New Browns." I will say this, Cleveland did play tough against the up and coming Minnesota Vikings, who were better than their record indicated, but the Browns were lucky to get away with a win.

I know that Ryan had his injuries, and that hurt a lot (wish they still had Ninowski), but Cleveland still had so much talent. I guess that they did not have to play that well to win the easy Century Division (the Browns were the only winning team), and they did not play that well.

[Saban1]

I looked it up to see if the Cleveland Browns had ever lost twice in one year with the other teams scoring over 50 points (I have no life) and I could not find any. That includes even the new Browns. Some other teams that have are the 1950 Baltimore Colts, the 1954 Washington Redskins, and the 1966 New York Giants. I am sure that there are more teams.

The 1966 Giants lost to Dallas 52 to 7, Los Angeles 55 to 14, and Washington 72 to 41. They also lost 49 to 40 to Cleveland, and 47 to 28 to Pittsburgh. I can see how they set a record for allowing the most points in a season (501) which was not broken until after the NFL went from a 14 to a 16 game season.

It could have been worse. In their final game in 1966, They played the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas, with the Eastern Conference clinched, rested their starting quarterback, Don Meredith, and had their two backup quarterbacks play the entire game. The Cowboys still won, 17 to 7. How much would Dallas have won by if it was a game that they needed to win?