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1974 Cleveland Browns season

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1974 Cleveland Browns season
OwnerArt Modell
General managerHarold Sauerbrei
Head coachNick Skorich
Home fieldCleveland Municipal Stadium
Local radioWHK
Results
Record4–10
Division place4th AFC Central
Playoff finishDid not qualify
Pro BowlersNone

The 1974 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 29th season, and 25th season with the National Football League.

The 1974 Browns were only the second Browns team to post a losing record in the 29-year history of the franchise to that point.[note 1]

Season summary

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The Browns finished 4–10 and never looked good. All those great players who had led the Browns to much success through the 1960s and the early part of the 1970s, either had retired or were ready to do so. And, as mentioned, since the Browns had been picking at the tail end of the draft for so long, they had little in the way of reinforcements to step into those stars' shoes.

With the exception of the Denver Broncos, who had a modest 7–6–1 record, none of the teams the Browns defeated in 1974 finished above .500. The Browns topped the Broncos 23–21 by scoring two unanswered touchdowns at the end of the game behind a backup third year quarterback by the name of Brian Sipe, out of San Diego State, who the Browns drafted in the thirteenth round of the 1972 draft, and had been on the team's taxi squad during his first two seasons with the team. They beat the 7–7 Houston Oilers 20–7, the 7–7 New England Patriots 21–14 and the 6–8 San Francisco 49ers 7–0 in a tundra-like setting after one of the worst snowstorms in Northeast Ohio history.

Otherwise, it was not good. The Browns offense could not score enough points behind the direction of quarterback Mike Phipps, taken with the No. 3 overall pick in the 1970 NFL Draft that was acquired when the club dealt HOF wide receiver Paul Warfield to the Miami Dolphins. And the defense had trouble stopping people. The Browns got off to a 1–5 start, getting humbled 33–7 by the Cincinnati Bengals in—by far—the most lopsided opening-day loss in franchise history to that point—and losing by 22 points (29–7) to the St. Louis Cardinals and by 16 (40–24) to the Oakland Raiders. They also were thumped by 24 (41–17) by the Dallas Cowboys in the next-to-last game of the season.

But pride is a hard thing to totally extinguish. The Browns players left from those great teams still had it, and despite the lack of overall talent on the club, it helped them to stay close in some other games.

They gave the eventual Super Bowl champion Steelers all they could handle in both meetings, losing 20–16 and 26–16, lost by 10 points (34–24) in the rematch with the Bengals, fell by five (15–10) to the 9–5 Buffalo Bills, lost 36–35 to the San Diego Chargers when Sipe fumbled the snap as the club was positioning the ball in the middle of the field for Don Cockroft to kick a game-winning field goal on the final play, and were beaten by four (28–24) in the rematch with the Oilers in the season finale.

On the season as a whole, the Browns started games well and ended them well, being outscored just 62–61 in the first quarter and outscoring their foes 73–63 in the fourth. But in the middle two quarters combined, they were out-done by a whopping 219–117 count, and therein lies most of the reason why they gave up 344 points, the most in team history to that time.

Offseason

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NFL Draft

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The following were selected in the 1974 NFL draft.

1974 Cleveland Browns Draft
Round Selection Player Position College Notes
2 40 Billy Corbett Offensive tackle Johnson C. Smith
5 118 Mark Ilgenfritz Defensive end Vanderbilt
6 146 Billy Pritchett Running back West Texas A&M
7 163 Bob Herrick Wide receiver Purdue
7 171 Gerry Sullivan Offensive tackle Illinois
8 199 Eddie Brown Defensive back Tennessee
9 224 Dan Scott Guard Ohio State
10 238 Mike Puestow Wide receiver North Dakota State
11 274 Tom Gooden Kicker Harding
12 302 Ron McNeil Defensive end North Carolina Central
13 327 Mike Siefert Defensive end Wisconsin
14 352 Bob Hunt Running back Heidelberg
15 380 Ransom Terrell Linebacker Arizona
16 407 Preston Anderson Defensive back Rice
17 430 Carlton Buchanan Defensive tackle SW Oklahoma

[1]

Personnel

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Staff / Coaches

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1974 Cleveland Browns staff

Front office

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches



Roster

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1974 Cleveland Browns roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

rookies in italics

Exhibition schedule

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Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance
1 August 2 at Los Angeles Rams L 21–24 0–1 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 28,021
2 August 12 San Francisco 49ers W 21–20 1–1 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 24,008
3 August 17 vs. Baltimore Colts L 3–37 1–2 Tampa Stadium 25,116
4 August 24 Washington Redskins L 17–20 1–3 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 44,528
5 September 1 vs. Cincinnati Bengals W 21–17 2–3 Ohio Stadium 36,326
6 September 7 at Detroit Lions L 7–21 2–4 Tiger Stadium 42,905

Regular season

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Schedule

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Week Date Opponent Result Record Venue Attendance Game Recap
1 September 15 at Cincinnati Bengals L 7–33 0–1 Riverfront Stadium 53,113 Recap
2 September 22 Houston Oilers W 20–7 1–1 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 58,988 Recap
3 September 29 at St. Louis Cardinals L 7–29 1–2 Busch Memorial Stadium 43,472 Recap
4 October 6 Oakland Raiders L 24–40 1–3 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 65,247 Recap
5 October 13 Cincinnati Bengals L 24–34 1–4 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 70,897 Recap
6 October 20 at Pittsburgh Steelers L 16–20 1–5 Three Rivers Stadium 48,100 Recap
7 October 27 Denver Broncos W 23–21 2–5 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 60,478 Recap
8 November 3 at San Diego Chargers L 35–36 2–6 San Diego Stadium 36,631 Recap
9 November 10 at New England Patriots W 21–14 3–6 Schaefer Stadium 61,279 Recap
10 November 17 Pittsburgh Steelers L 16–26 3–7 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 77,739 Recap
11 November 24 Buffalo Bills L 10–15 3–8 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 66,504 Recap
12 December 1 San Francisco 49ers W 7–0 4–8 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 24,559 Recap
13 December 7 at Dallas Cowboys L 17–41 4–9 Texas Stadium 48,754 Recap
14 December 15 at Houston Oilers L 24–28 4–10 Astrodome 37,910 Recap
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Standings

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AFC Central
W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK
Pittsburgh Steelers 10 3 1 .750 4–2 7–3–1 305 189 W2
Houston Oilers 7 7 0 .500 4–2 7–4 236 282 W1
Cincinnati Bengals 7 7 0 .500 3–3 5–6 283 259 L3
Cleveland Browns 4 10 0 .286 1–5 3–8 251 344 L2

Notes

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  1. ^ The other was the 1956 team

References

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  1. ^ "1974 NFL Draft Listing – Pro-Football-Reference.com". Pro-Football-Reference.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
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