Moseley, Browns Get Second Chance, Win in Second Overtime

You’re Mark Moseley, and you could just kick yourself.

Sure, the Washington Redskins drop-kicked you out of the league last Oct. 13, but there you were in probably one of the greatest games ever played with a chance to stick your foot in a former general manager’s mouth.

OK, so the Cleveland Browns picked you up in desperation late in the season only because their kicker went down with an injury.

But Saturday, you’re freezing at Cleveland Stadium in front of 79,650 home fans you barely know. Your 23-yard field goal in overtime can beat the New York Jets and cause frenzy among a crowd whose team has not won a playoff game since 1969.

But you blow it. You shank it to the right. The ball barely hits your foot. You’d jump into Lake Erie if you thought you’d sink.

“It was like carrying 80,000 people on your shoulders,” Moseley said. “And they’ve all got a knife in your back.”

There’s no telling what the fans here would have done to Moseley had he not emerged from this game a hero.

Somehow he did.

It was Moseley’s 27-yard field goal at 2:02 of the second 15-minute overtime period that finally beat the Jets, 23-20, in a playoff game that will not soon be forgotten.

The game was so good and so long (4 hours 5 minutes) that Cleveland Coach Marty Schottenheimer paused midway through the first overtime to consider his place in history.

“I thought to myself, ‘This is a great game,’ ” he said afterward.

The Jets didn’t quite see it that way, not after blowing a 20-10 lead with 4:14 left in regulation. Not after what could and might have been.

It was the third longest game in National Football League history, but for the Jets, it may be one of those games that never really end.

“This is the worst game that I’ve ever, ever had,” said Jet defensive end Mark Gastineau, speaking on behalf of his emotions. “I don’t even know if I could watch it. That would be a damn hard thing to do.”

The Browns, by way of their little miracle, now advance to the AFC championship game next Sunday.

But how do you top this? How do you ever move on?

How can you forget what came over Browns quarterback Bernie Kosar in the fourth quarter, when he smelled of the nearby lake after throwing two interceptions in fewer than five minutes, the second one with 4:22 left in regulation, thereby setting up a 25-yard run by Freeman McNeil that put the Jets up 20-10?

“He’s got great character,” Schottenheimer said of Kosar. “He completely understands this game, that you have no control over the last one (interception).

Kosar, who set or tied NFL playoff records for attempts (64), completions (33) and yardage (489), never blinked.

But boy, did he have a couple of reasons to.

The Jets were leading, 13-10, in the fourth quarter when the Browns drove from their own 50-yard line to inside the Jet five, where they faced third and two.

A Kosar pass, intended for Webster Slaughter, was intercepted by Jet cornerback Russell Carter in the end zone with 9:01 to go, bringing back memories of the ugliest moment in Brown football history.

That, of course, was a bitter 14-12 division playoff loss in 1981 to the then Oakland Raiders. It was the game in which Raider safety Mike Davis intercepted a Brian Sipe pass in the end zone with just 49 seconds left, killing what seemed a sure Brown victory.

Since memories die slowly in Cleveland, Kosar’s pass was not so much an interception as it was a curse.

The mood grew darker when Kosar was intercepted by Jerry Holmes and McNeil scored on the next play.

But Kosar, as stated, never blinked. Trailing by 10 points with 4:08 left, he drove the Browns downfield, aided greatly by 15-yard roughing-the-quarterback penalty on Gastineau when the Browns would have been staring at third and 24 from their own 18.

After two misses, Kosar threw four straight completions, the last a 22-yarder to Brian Brennan to the Jet three-yard line.

Two plays later, fullback Kevin Mack scored from one yard out to cut the lead to 20-17 with 1:57 left.

The Jets recovered the ensuing onsides kick, but the Browns’ defense stuffed them on three straight plays, forcing a punt.

Cleveland got the ball back at its 33-yard line with 57 seconds and no timeouts remaining. A pass-interference penalty on first down pushed the ball to the Jet 42. Kosar then threw 37 yards to Slaughter, down to the Jet 5.

The Browns started mobbing Slaughter, not realizing the clock was running.

Kosar was incensed.

“I realized the clock was still going,” he said. “I was trying to get everyone’s attention. We lost about 30 seconds. That can’t happen in a big game like this.”

The Browns regrouped, and Kosar fired a pass out of bounds that was nearly intercepted by Carter. Kosar said someone hit his arm.

With 11 seconds left, Schottenheimer chose not to risk another play in trying for a win. Instead, he sent Moseley into the game, which certainly wasn’t a cinch.

Moseley had already missed field-goal tries of 46 and 44 yards.

“You go for the tie,” Schottenheimer insisted. “Everything was going our way. It wouldn’t make any sense not to go for the field goal then.”

Moseley’s 22-yard field goal sent the game into overtime, and Schottenheimer would live to defend his move.

He did so even though the Jets won the coin toss and took the overtime kickoff.

But the Jets had lost all momentum. Quarterback Ken O’Brien, who had entered the game when starter Pat Ryan strained a groin muscle in the second quarter, never had a chance against the Browns’ defense. Cleveland, which had been burned in the first quarter on a trick play touchdown pass from Ryan to Wesley Walker off a lateral, would finish with nine quarterback sacks, four of them by Anthony Griggs.

The Jets punted away their first possession in overtime, giving the ball back to the Browns at their 26.

Four Kosar completions later, the Browns were in Mosley field-goal range.

The game was over. For Moseley, it would be nothing more difficult than booting an extra point.

And, hey, this was Mark Moseley, the 15-year veteran, the only kicker to win the NFL’s most-valuable-player award, the same man who kicked an league-record 23 straight field goals with the Redskins in 1981.

But here, something went terribly wrong.

“I ended up off balance,” Moseley said of the wide-right miss. “I was falling away from the ball. I don’t know what happened. I barely hit the ball.”

Moseley was out of football when the Browns called in November. Their regular kicker, Matt Bahr, had suffered ligament damage in his knee while trying to make a tackle against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Nov. 23.

Moseley figured this was his last chance.

“It was not a way I wanted to end my career, believe me,” Moseley said. “I always said I wanted to walk away from the game at the top.”

The way some Cleveland fans were talking, he might have instead been walking away from the game with a limp.

Yet the Jets were unable to take advantage of this unbelievable reprieve.

The Brown defense would not allow it.

The Jets followed Moseley’s miss with a resounding punt.

Their next overtime possession ended with end Sam Clancy sacking O’Brien for a 10-yard loss on third down, and the Jets were again forced to punt.

The Browns got the ball at their own 31 with 2:38 left in overtime.

They slowly moved up field as the Jet defense wilted. The great Gastineau, still limping badly after returning from knee surgery and also bothered by a pulled stomach muscle, could only play on passing downs.

“We started to wear down a little,” Jet Coach Joe Walton said. “Our defensive line started to get tired.”

The Browns had just 75 yards rushing all day against the Jets, but 43 of those yards came on the final drive.

By the time first overtime ended, the Browns were on the Jet 35.

On the first play of the second overtime, Mack ran 15 yards over right tackle. Then it was Mack again for four yards and Mack again off left tackle for seven more.

Then it was Moseley, standing alone again, staring at his fickle right toe and contemplating his possible infamy.

“It was exciting,” Moseley said. “It was storybook. Someday, I’ll write about it.”

Playoff Notes

Saturday’s game, the third longest in NFL history, extended 17:54 into overtime. The longest was a playoff game between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas day in 1971, which extended 22:40 into overtime. The second longest (17:54 into overtime) was played between Dallas and Houston on Dec. 23, 1962. . . . Cleveland quarterback Bernie Kosar, with 489 yards passing, broke the playoff record of 433 set by San Diego’s Dan Fouts. Kosar, in throwing 64 times, also broke Fouts’ record for attempts (53) and tied Fouts’ record for completions with 33. All of Fouts’ records were set in an overtime game against the Miami Dolphins in 1981.