EXCLUSIVE: 38-year-old QB Don Strock leads Cleveland over Houston into 1988 playoffs; read original game story

To see a 38-year-old quarterback lead the Browns into the playoffs against Houston after he had injured a starter doesn’t require much imagination in Cleveland.

All you need is an elderly Browns supporter with a sharp recall.

Due to injuries to Bernie Kosar, Gary Danielson, and Mike Pagel in 1988, newly signing Don Strock was added to the roster late in the season. In the season’s last regular season game, which ended in a 28-23 victory over Houston, Strock helped the Browns advance to the postseason.

For Strock, he made his first starts for the Browns (including during the playoffs) in five years as a long-time backup for the Miami Dolphins.

Similar to this season, injuries prevented more players from playing than only the starting quarterback, Kosar. Hanford Dixon and Kevin Mack, two celebrities, were also injured.

This is the account of the game as it was published in The Plain Dealer on December 19, 1988, the next day. Even though the Browns prevailed in this game, the Houston Oilers prevailed 10-7 in a rematch the next week in the playoffs.

Cool Strock restores Browns’ lead and erases the Oilers’ 23-7 lead.

By Plain Dealer reporter Tony Grossi

with their backs to the wall, noses rubbed in their own frozen turf, the Browns repelled the Houston Oilers yesterday in one of their greatest clutch comebacks not engineered by Bernie Kosar.

The Browns overcame a 23-7 deficit in the second half under the veteran leadership of Don Strock, who had ice on his nose and veins, and sent the Oilers back to sunny Houston after a 28-23 snow job.

Jerry Glanville’s group will have six days to fail to remember how it blew this one preceding returning for the rematch in the AFC trump card game on Christmas Eve.

It is dicey the Oilers will come with a bounty of presents gifts then, as well.

Cleveland won second spot in the AFC Focal Division and home-field advantage in the trump card game with its 10-6 record. Houston was likewise 10-6, yet formally completed third due to a 3-3 record in the division.

The triumph could have been an early Christmas present, yet the Browns surely were meriting spirits.

Without Kosar, fullback Kevin Mack, or cornerback Hanford Dixon, they won this game. They dominated this match in swirling conditions and on a snow-shrouded field with a spent a 14 quarterback year vocation in radiant Miami.

Furthermore, they dominated this match in spite of blowing a definite scoring opportunity finishing the principal half, and afterward permitting a 74-yard Houston scoring walk starting the last part.

Following that seven-yard Warren Moon score pass to Haywood Jeffires with 9:03 left in the second from last quarter, the Oilers had to dropkick three back to back times. On top of the multitude of hostile features that would unfurl, the Browns dominated this match with guard.

Brandishing the third-best surging assault in the association at 147.5 yards a game, the Oilers slipped on the frosty turf for a fabulous all out of 37 yards on 23 endeavors.

“My inclination was that the game would have been won on feelings,” said Marty Schottenheimer, who has instructed this group to its fourth sequential season finisher appearance. ” As I told the crew, this is a round of inches, yet the six inches that are most significant are between your spine and your breastbone.”

Strock had the biggest heart of all, starting only his second game since 1983.

Of Strock’s initial six passes, three were captured. That cool spell brought about a 39-yard return for score by Houston security Domingo Bryant as the Oilers took a 10-0 lead in the initial 10 minutes.

Strock’s next series finished in the first of Houston’s two sacks. David Grayson’s breastbone-shattering hit on Moon by the Browns’ defense set them back, releasing the ball at the Oilers’ 10, where rookie Michael Dean Perry scored for Cleveland.

Houston’s first-half scoring was ended by two 42- and 35-yard field goals by Zendejas. A 14-play drive by Strock as of now kicked the bucket when he bumbled raising back to toss at the Oilers’ 6.

The shuddering horde of 74,610 booed the Browns adequately as they jogged for the storage space to ponder what unquestionably gave off an impression of being their most recent 30 minutes of football this season.

Schottenheimer related, “I told Don, ‘You need to rely on your strength, and that’s your experience.'”

In 14 years of rescuing the Miami Dolphins, Strock was never better compared to he was in the last part yesterday.

After the Oilers went on, 23-7, following the final part the opening shot, Strock designed progressive score drives of 63, 78 and 89 yards.

“He had that equivalent search in his eye that he had in Miami,” Sincere Byner, alluding to Strock’s two-score aid project Monday.

After all the scoring, the Browns chilled the triumph with a 10-play, 4-minute, 26-second belonging that passed on Houston’s Moon with 72 yards to navigate in 20 seconds. Not even John Elway could do that!

Great defense from the inspired offensive line, important plays by the Browns’ receivers, and a little bit of luck marked each Cleveland touchdown drive.

In the first, Strock associated with Webster Butcher (15 yards), Clarence Climates (22), Byner (10) and Ozzie Newsome (12), preceding throwing to Byner from two yards out for the score. One Strock pass redirected at the line was almost captured.

The subsequent drive began with a 32-yard ignore to Butcher cornerback Patrick Allen, who was beaten all game like a dusty floor covering. Houston contributed a vital offsides punishment on fourth-and-three that later set up one of the greatest plays of the game.

Strock’s pass deflected off Houston linebacker John Grimsley’s left shoulder on third-and-five from the 9 and ended up in Herman Fontenot’s hands for a first down at the 2. Byner tunneled in from that point on the following play, shutting the shortfall to 23-21 and lighting the fanatic fans into a free for all.

The following opening shot was heart halting. Houston’s Allen Pinkett burst through the inclusion and was en route to a score before kamikaze kicker Matt Bahr stumbled him at the Houston 35. A Houston penalty for illegal formation resulted in the loss of a first down and the need for a second punt, which Moon was unable to take advantage of (20 of 35 attempts for 287 yards and a touchdown).

The winning drive then demonstrated the brand-new duo of Slaughter and Reggie Langhorne.

Langhorne undressed the beset Allen for a 28-yard comebacker to the Oilers’ 39, and afterward held tight to a fourth-down get over the center at the 25 after Houston’ Jeff Donaldson and Steve Earthy colored sent him into never land.

Two plays later, Strock changed the called play and hit Butcher from 22 yards on a post for the game-champ.

It covered a six-get, 136 yard game for Butcher.

Strock doesn’t actually realize whether he’ll play in the rematch. Kosar’s status is everyday. Yet, in the event that Strock doesn’t toss another pass this season, he realizes that he has followed through with the Browns’ interest in him.