Giants Win in a Breeze; Browns Left in a Fog : Karlis’ FG Gives Denver OT Victory

OK, Fido, this is where you get off.

Five minutes from glory, with a seven-point lead and 98 yards of buffer zone, the Cleveland Brown fans and their Dawg defense saw the heavens open and greatness intervene.

Who else could this be about but the (potentially) greatest of them all, John Elway?

Late Sunday afternoon, he hit the Browns with twin lighting bolts that they’ll be talking about in Colorado until the Rockies crumble: The 98-yard touchdown drive for a tie with :37 left in regulation; the 60-yard drive to set up the winning field goal in overtime. Rich Karlis kicked it from 33 yards and the Denver Broncos were 23-20 winners and Pasadena-bound.

That’s how quickly the dream died here. A TV interviewer suggested to Elway that he must feel for Browns fans.

“I’m sure they’re disappointed,” Elway said, grinning. “But after hearing them yell, ‘Elway (bleep) all day, my heart doesn’t exactly go out to them.”

This is the stuff of legends, Bronco-style.

It was Cleveland leading, 20-13, with 5:32 left in the fourth quarter, Bernie Kosar having just combined with Brian Brennan (he caught the ball) and Dennis Smith (he fell down) for a 48-yard scoring play. Denver’s Ken Bell fumbled the ensuing kickoff and fell on it at his two, which is not what you would call a good omen were you a Bronco, nor good working conditions. The Broncos had scored only one touchdown all day, on a 37-yard drive after a recovered fumble.

“I think everybody dropped a couple inches when the ball was downed,” rookie receiver Mark Jackson said. “We thought, ‘Man, what else can go wrong?’ ”

First and 10--Elway reports for duty, cheerfully.

“He smiled,” said Steve Watson. “He said, ‘You guys work hard and good things are going to happen.’ Then he smiled again. You wondered if it was out of exhaustion.

“I couldn’t believe it. You figure we’ve got 98 yards to go and we haven’t been moving the ball that well all day. He might as well be cool. I thought, ‘If John is going to be cool, I can be cool, too.’ ”

Elway takes them up to the line and completes a five-yard pass to Sammy Winder.

Third and 18 at the Cleveland 48. He hits Mark Jackson for 20 yards.

“Dan (Reeves, Bronco coach) told me just to go for half of it,” Elway said. “Orson Mobley (the tight end) was the primary target but the ‘backers jumped him. Their safeties were sitting deep and Mark was open.”

Said Jackson: “I hadn’t had a great day. I hadn’t had a great week of practice. I knew if they called my number, I had to deliver. When they called my number, I was kinda proud, being a rookie. . . . Usually John gives that play a quick read, from the top (deeper) route to the bottom (shorter) route. I was the guy who was 20 yards deep. If he wanted the first down, he’d be coming to me. I was bumped off the line. As I got to the top of the route, I broke and John had the ball right there. I didn’t have too much time to think about it. John drilled me with the ball.”

Second and 10 at the Brown 28--Elway hits Steve Sewell for 14 yards.

Second and 10 at the 14--He scrambles right for nine yards, sliding hard over the sideline ahead of two pursuers coming for all they’re worth out of the secondary.

Third and one at the five--He throws a low rocket to Jackson running a slant pattern in the end zone. A moment later, Karlis’ extra point ties the game.

“They were playing zone,” Elway said. “The corner let Mark go and I just kind of put it in the hole.

“It was the best drive I’ve ever been part of. . . . I remember one against California where we had fourth and 17 at our 13 and ended up getting a first down and later a field goal. Then the fiasco started.”

That was 1982, when he was at Stanford and Cal lateraled the kickoff back for a touchdown through the Stanford marching band, a legend of another kind.

All that remained Sunday was the overtime. With Elway smoking, no clock to fight and the Browns buckling, duck soup or in this case, doggie stew.

Second and five at his 30--Elway hits Mobley who makes a leaping catch for a 22-yard gain.

Third and 12 at the 50--Elway is chased out of the pocket, flees to the left sideline and then throws one across his body, hitting Watson who makes a leaping catch for a 28-yard gain to the 22.

“It was a tough catch,” Watson said. “My vertical leap? It’s been clocked at 23 inches.”

The Broncos were within field-goal range but Coach Dan. Reeves had them run three running plays that reached the 15. Then he sent Karlis in to kick the game-winner, which he did, knocking it perhaps two feet inside the left upright.

“I thought he missed it,” Elway said. “I thought he missed it to the left. But then I didn’t hear any fans screaming.”

Sobs don’t carry as well. The Browns had the upper hand in the first half, when Denver’s running game totalled 65 yards and Elway had 36 of that on two scrambles.

What couldn’t the Browns afford to do? What hadn’t they done all season?

All together now, turn the ball over.

Kosar, who threw 10 interceptions all season before his two last week against the Jets, threw two more in Sunday’s first half. Maybe he isn’t quite as cool as he claims to be, yet. Also, the Browns fumbled three times, of which they only recovered two.

The one they couldn’t account for, Kevin Mack’s bobble at his 37, was pounced on by Bronco linebacker Ken Woodard, the man who stripped Marcus Allen and carried the ball into the end zone in the season opener.

At this point, the Browns had a 7-3 lead. The Broncos then marched the 37 yards, the first 34 on Elway’s run for the left flag, on which he stumbled--he was playing with a sore left ankle suffered last week against the New England Patriots--and was kept out of the end zone.

“I blew a tire,” Elway said. “I’m not sure which one.”

From the three, it took the Broncos four tries but they got in, Gerald Willhite going the last yard with a dive that just barely carried him through Chris Rockins’ tackle at the goal line. In the closing minutes of the first half, Kosar drove the Browns to the Denver two, but there he was called for intentionally grounding the ball. With :25 left, Mark Moseley kicked a 29-yard field goal and it was 10-10 at the half. That was the halftime score here last week, when the Browns and Jets went two overtimes.

Who’d get the jump in the second half?

Late in the third period, Elway marched the Broncos 61 yards, setting up Karlis’ 26-yard field goal. Denver had a 13-10 lead.

Midway through the fourth period, Kosar hit Brennan, running an out-and-go against Dennis Smith, the Pro Bowl safety from USC who has been burned several times in the last month. Smith bit on the sideline move and fell trying to recover. Brennan caught the ball at the Bronco 17 and pranced into the end zone with what looked the biggest Brown touchdown in 20 years.

And then along came John. . . .

Which is how John Elway, former quarterback of Granada Hills High School, got himself a trip home.

“Pasadena,” he said, wearing one the Super Bowl XXI baseball caps they passed out to all the Broncos, “where I tried to get my whole college career. I never did get there.

“It still hasn’t sunk in. I’m going to have to slap myself.”

In Cleveland, it’s sunk in all right. They’d like to slap him, too, but he’s long gone.

AFC Notes

A mixup because of an injury left the Browns with only 10 players on the field when Denver scored its first touchdown on Gerald Willhite’s one-yard run on fourth down in the second quarter. “I ran off the field and told Mike Johnson to go in,” linebacker Eddie Johnson said. “Brad Van Pelt saw Mike Johnson go in and Brad, obviously thinking we were in our regular defense, came out.” Van Pelt, a veteran linebacker who came to the Browns from the Raiders, plays on special defenses. He was asked if there was a mixup, and answered with a curt, “yes.” And walked away. . . . Brown Coach Marty Schottenheimer was furious with the officials after they disallowed a trick play by the Browns that would have given them a key first down early in the fourth quarter. The Browns had fourth down and one at the 50 and lined up with tackle Cody Risien as a tight end. On the quarterback count, Risien took a step back into the backfield as a man in motion and a Denver player jumped offside, apparently thinking that a tackle had illegally moved. However, referee Chuck Herberling called a five-yard penalty on the Browns, and they had to punt. . . . The only interception against John Elway was on a call reversed after a study of instant replay. Cornerback Mark Harper of the Browns made a diving grab of an Elway pass on third and five from the 50 early in the third quarter. But the officials ruled that he had come down out of bounds. The replay clearly showed that Harper’s knees had touched the ground in bounds, and the Browns were given the ball at their 31.