1974 Cleveland Browns season

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

1974 Cleveland Browns season
Owner	Art Modell
General manager	Harold Sauerbrei
Head coach	Nick Skorich
Home field	Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Local radio	WHK
Results
Record	4–10
Division place	4th AFC Central
Playoff finish	Did not qualify
Pro Bowlers	None

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.

Season summary

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

NFL Draft

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

Personnel

Staff / Coaches

1974 Cleveland Browns staff

Front office Owner and president – Art Modell Executive vice president/general manager – Harold Sauerbrei Vice President of Player Personnel - Bob Nussbaumer Head coaches Head coaches – Nick Skorich Offensive coaches Wide receivers – Fran Polsfoot Offensive line – Forrest Gregg

Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator / Defensive Line - Dick Modzelewski Linebackers – Dale Lindsey Secondary / defensive backs – Richie McCabe Special teams coaches Special teams – Al Tabor Film Coordinator - Ed Ulinski Athletic Trainer - Leo Murphy

Roster

1974 Cleveland Browns roster
Quarterbacks 16 Will Cureton 15 Mike Phipps 17 Brian Sipe Running backs 30 Ken Brown 31 Bob Hunt 34 Greg Pruitt KR/PR 35 Bo Scott FB 37 Hugh McKinnis FB Wide receivers 18 Ben Hawkins 26 Billy Lefear KR 42 Gloster Richardson 43 Fair Hooker 48 Dave Sullivan 82 Tim George 83 Jubilee Dunbar 88 Steve Holden Tight ends 84 Jim Thaxton 89 Milt Morin		Offensive linemen 54 Tom DeLeone C 61 Bob DeMarco C 62 Glen Holloway G 63 Barry Darrow T 64 Jim Copeland T 65 John Demarie G 67 Chuck Hutchison G 69 Pete Adams G 73 Doug Dieken T 78 Bob McKay T/G 79 Gerry Sullivan T/C Defensive linemen 66 Mike Seifert DE 71 Walter Johnson DT 72 Jerry Sherk DT 74 Carl Barisich DT 75 Allen Aldridge DE 77 Mark Ilgenfritz DE 81 Nick Roman DE		Linebackers 50 John Garlington OLB 52 Billy Andrews 53 Mel Long MLB 56 Jim Romaniszyn 59 Charlie Hall OLB 60 Bob Babich MLB Defensive backs 21 Van Green SS/CB 22 Clarence Scott CB 23 Clifford Brooks CB 27 Thom Darden FS/PR 28 Eddie Brown S 29 Walt Sumner S 40 Preston Anderson S Special teams 10 Chris Gartner K 12 Don Cockroft K/P rookies in italics

Exhibition schedule

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

Schedule

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

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

External links

• 1974 Cleveland Browns at Pro Football Reference
• 1974 Cleveland Browns Statistics at jt-sw.com
• 1974 Cleveland Browns Schedule at jt-sw.com
• 1974 Cleveland Browns at DatabaseFootball.com
• Season summary and team stats at Cleveland Browns.com