NFL Playoffs : Broncos Went a Long Way With Elway in Driver’s Seat

Listen my little Broncomaniacs and you shall hear of the 98-yard drive we hold so dear.

And if you can’t stand this 1,000th retelling, pull out your rug and take a nap or tell Mommy and Daddy to move you to Cleveland , where there’s no John Elway and they make you wear dog snouts on your nose.

Wherever Bronco fans meet, that’s all you hear this week, the drive, the drive, the drive--or as they refer to it here, The Drive.

Wasn’t there already life here before The Drive?

Wasn’t there a John Elway?

Hadn’t another Bronco team made it to the Super Bowl, with Lyle Alzado and the original Orange Crush defense?

Perhaps, but it was all too long ago to remember and pales before that moment which, as a caption in the Denver Post noted this week, “made Denver--and John Elway--famous.”

It’s perfect. The Drive was put together in the closing minutes of regulation play in last year’s American Football Conference championship game at Cleveland, where the Browns had just taken a 20-13 lead. The same Browns and Broncos are about to meet in this season’s AFC championship game here Sunday. The Browns have been living for the rematch, which was supposed to occur in September on a Monday night in Cleveland, but was canceled by the strike.

This game becomes the champeenship match and the rematch, all wrapped up in one, so what else is there to talk about this week except . . .

The Drive?

DAWG DAY AFTERNOON

This wasn’t supposed to happen. This was the Browns’ stadium, and Brown weather--cold, overcast, depressing--and it went down before the Browns’ inimitable fans, dressed in their canine finery, armed with their doggie chow of choice.

Ask Denver’s then-rookie wide receiver, Mark Jackson, who went out before the game.

“We were stretching and they were throwing the dog biscuits. Vance (Johnson) and I were in the back, close to the end zone. Vance was picking ‘em up and throwing ‘em back at ‘em, and I’m like, ‘Don’t! Don’t! That’s going to make ‘em throw more! They’ll probably just catch ‘em and throw ‘em back!’

“It was pretty fun until we were getting ready to run pass patterns and I caught one right in the funny bone, and it kinda stung. And I kinda remembered that.”

BRONCOGOATS

The game was a cold-weather, off-field special, uneventful and low scoring.

The Broncos scored their first touchdown after Cleveland’s Kevin Mack fumbled the ball away at his 37. Before the Drive, the Broncos had 216 total yards. Elway had completed 14 of 26 passes for 116 yards and no touchdowns, and had thrown an interception.

With 5:43 left, Denver strong safety Dennis Smith fell, allowing Brian Brennan to catch a 48-yard scoring pass from Bernie Kosar to make it 20-13. The lead looked large enough to last until Super Sunday.

The Broncos’ Ken Bell, a rookie free agent, let Mark Moseley’s kickoff bounce and wound up having to fall on it at his own two.

The Dawgs in the stands bayed. There was 5:32 left when Elway and the offense came on.

“Suddenly, I flashed on something,” Elway said after the game. “Great quarterbacks are supposed to make great plays in great games.

“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Until I could do that, I couldn’t be considered a great quarterback.”

THE DRIVE

First and 10, Denver two--In the huddle, Bronco guard Keith Bishop announces, “We’ve got these guys right where we want ‘em.” Said Bishop later: “Just trying to lighten things up.”

Elway throws a five-yard swing pass to Steve Sewell.

Second and five, Denver seven--Sammy Winder runs three yards.

Third and three, Denver 10--Winder gets the first down, by inches. It’s supposed to be a trap but the Browns are playing contain and don’t go to a short-yardage defense with a defender over every offensive lineman. All the Broncos have to do is surge forward, even if they barely make it.

First and 10, Denver 12--Winder for three.

Second and seven, Denver 15--Elway scrambles for 11.

First and 10, Denver 26--Elway hits Sewell over the middle for 22 yards. Sewell gets smacked as he catches the ball by free safety Chris Rockins but hangs on.

First and 10, Denver 48--Elway finds Steve Watson for 12 on a sideline pattern.

First and 10, Cleveland 40, 1:59 left--Elway passes incomplete.

Second and 10--Elway is sacked by Dave Puzzouli for a loss of eight.

Third and 18, Cleveland 48, 1:47 left--From the shotgun, Elway drills one over the middle to Mark Jackson for 20.

Amazingly, the first thing that happened on the play was that Watson went in motion, there was a mix-up, and the center snap to Elway hit Watson in the thigh. It only grazed him, though, and Elway came up with the ricochet.

Dan Reeves had told Elway to make sure he got some yardage on this play, and if they were short, they’d go again on fourth down. Elway had a receiver running a shorter pattern under Jackson’s but went down the field, instead.

“The Cleveland guy was bumping me which isn’t a real favorable defense for that route,” Jackson says. “But I got him to think I was going deep and I cut underneath. And as soon as I came out of my break, the ball was there. I didn’t know if John was getting pressure or what, but the ball was there.”

Said Cleveland Coach Marty Schottenheimer: “If you want to pick out one play, this one will stick out.”

First and 10, Cleveland 28--Elway throws incomplete, a throwaway.

Second and 10, 1:19 left--Elway passes to Sewell for 14.

First and 10, Cleveland 14, :57 left--Elway throws incomplete.

Second and 10, :42 left--It looks like an Elway scramble but it’s a designed quarterback draw that he breaks to the right for nine.

Third and one, Cleveland five, :39 left--With one timeout left, Reeves goes for it all. Jackson runs a slant into the end zone against all-pro cornerback Hanford Dixon and Elway throws him a low howitzer shot that looks as if it could carry the diminutive Jackson into Lake Erie, or plant him under the Dog Pound. Jackson catches it, skidding through the dog biscuits.

“I was in motion and they went to man-to-man coverage,” says Jackson. “The guy (Dixon) came across in motion with me. I knew if I could get him to think I was going out, I had it made. Unfortunately, when John hiked the ball, he was still inside. I still gave him the outside move and he bit on it hard, because he didn’t have any help outside. I was able to slide inside.

“As John threw the ball, one of the linemen stuck his hand up and that kind of obscured my vision for a second. The next thing I knew, it was coming past his hand on its way to the ground and I was just hoping that gravity would pull me down quick enough to get to it.

“Did he throw it hard? When I saw the films, John looked kind of like Sandy Koufax, (with his arm) back like this.”

Rich Karlis’ extra point tied it, 20-20. The Browns ran the clock out in regulation, won the coin toss but went three plays and out in the overtime, then watched Elway drive the Broncos 60 yards to their 16.

There Karlis skinned a 33-yard field goal inside the left upright and the Broncos won, 23-20.

NO JOY IN DAWGVILLE

“People ask me about it and I say I don’t remember,” says Bob Golic, the Browns’ All-Pro nose tackle.

“What was it, 98 yards?

“I was on the field for about the first 20-25 yards. Then they took me out and put in some of the pass-rush people. I’m standing on the sidelines going, ‘C’mon, put me in! Put me back in!’

“By the time Denver got down to our 25, I went and sat down. I figured, ‘Hey, I wasn’t in there this far, I don’t want to be blamed for it now.’ ”