In Byner and Mack, Browns May Have Pair of 1,000-Yard Rushers

Rookie Kevin Mack and second-year pro Earnest Byner needle each other in practice each week in a friendly rivalry that is pushing the Cleveland Browns’ running backs towards the first dual 1,000-yard seasons in the National Football League since 1976.

If Byner can average 67.6 yards and Mack can average 45 yards for the final five games of the season, they’ll become the first two NFL backs to rush for 1,000 yards each for one team in a season since Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier did it for Pittsburgh in 1976.

“People have brought that to our attention and it’s something that we’d be looking forward to,” said Mack, who has 775 yards in 11 games. “That’s why we challenge each other to get as many yards as we can.”

Mack, a product of Clemson who spent one season with the Los Angeles Express in the United States Football League, rushed for 94 yards on 21 carries in last Sunday’s 17-7 victory over the Buffalo Bills.

Byner, a 10th-round draft pick out of East Carolina in 1984, had 109 yards on 15 attempts to give him 662 yards for the season.

“We really try to help each other, work with each other,” Mack said. “It’s not really a rivalry.

“It really starts in practice, with the game plan. We see what the game plan is and try to figure out who’s going to get the ball more, and we take it from there. We’ll say, ‘Well, I think I can do this better than you,’ and we just challenge each other to do a better job.”

Byner said he did not envision himself as a potential 1,000-yard rusher until well into this season. He had 426 yards on 72 rushes for 5.9-yard average as a rookie last year.

“It still hasn’t really sunk in on me. I just try to do my job each week and very seldom look at statistics,” Byner said. “But people bring it up to me, and really it’s become a goal now for me to get a thousand yards.

“I want to tote the ball around 15-20 times a game, and I think if I get it that many times, it’s almost guaranteed.”

The 203 yards by Byner and Mack against Buffalo more than tripled the Browns’ rushing output a week earlier against Cincinnati. Byner, however, preferred not to attribute the improvement to Buffalo’s weak defensive play.

“I think it was a combination of us being more determined, really needing to get something going, and the offensive linemen really buckling down and doing their jobs, too,” he said. “I think it’s been there, but it’s been more breakdowns on our part than defensive people stopping us.”