Styles Differ, but Results the Same : AFC championship: Quarterbacks Kosar and Elway have had erratic seasons, but they’ve saved their best for the playoffs.

For all their differences in style, Cleveland’s Bernie Kosar and Denver’s John Elway share two common traits: their competitiveness and resourcefulness.

Both have endured erratic seasons, but they seem to have saved their best performances for the playoffs.

Kosar completed 20 of 29 passes for 251 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions as the Browns outlasted Buffalo, 34-30, last week.

Elway completed 12 of 20 passes for 239 yards, one touchdown and one interception, including throws of 18 and 36 yards to ignite a winning fourth-quarter drive in a 24-23 victory over Pittsburgh last week.

When asked about the playoffs, Kosar and Elway sound like they’ve been reading each other’s mail.

“This is the fun time of the year,” Kosar said.

“It’s more fun being in the playoffs,” Elway said. “This is what you work all year for.”

The two quarterbacks will match wits on Sunday when Cleveland visits Denver in the AFC Championship game--the third time in the last four years that the Browns and Broncos have been paired in the title game. Denver won both previous meetings.

In terms of style, Kosar is the more unconventional quarterback. At 6-foot-5, he looks almost frail and gawky. With little mobility, he tends to hang in the pocket. But he has a quick release and tends to throw sidearm around onrushing defenders.

Broncos defensive coordinator Wade Phillips calls Kosar “a bad-looking quarterback who plays great. He’s not your typical stand-tall-in-the-pocket quarterback. He sidearms it. But he’s a winner.

“He’s really come on at the end of the year. He had a stretch there where they were going to bench him, I guess. But he’s gotten better and better.”

Broncos head Coach Dan Reeves says Kosar is “playing well at the right time. He had an exceptional game against Buffalo.”

Elway is more conventional, a drop-back passer with a powerful arm. But he’s also a dangerous scrambler, and when a play breaks down and Elway sprints out of the pocket, he is often at his most dangerous.

Browns defensive end Al (Bubba) Baker says it’s a waste of time to try to outguess Elway. “John Elway doesn’t know what he’s going to do once he’s out of the pocket,” Baker said.

Cleveland Coach Bud Carson said, “Elway can beat you a lot of ways, and he positively proved that again against Pittsburgh.” Neither quarterback professes to be impressed with statistics. The bottom line--the won-loss column--is what matters.

“I don’t get caught up in rating quarterbacks,” Kosar said. “I don’t drop myself in a pecking order of quarterbacks.”

“Stats have never been very important to me,” Elway agrees. “My job is to win games--anyway I can.”

Elway says he can commiserate with Kosar’s problems during the season, which included a slump, an elbow injury and fan unrest. Over a four-game stretch from mid-November to early December, the Browns were 0-3-1 and nearly fell out of the playoff picture. Much of the blame was put on Kosar, who went 12 quarters without a touchdown pass.

Asked if he could identify with Kosar’s difficulties, Elway, who also has been booed by hometown fans, said, “Every bit of it.

“I like Bernie. I’m probably about as tired of hearing how bad he looks as he is. I’m sure he’s tired of hearing about how awkward he looks. The bottom line is he gets the job done. I’d like to think I do, too.”