Frank Ryan barks out signals.

Ernie Green

Jerry Hill

Bill Glass

Raymond Berry

Larry Benz

Unitas consults with Shula.

Gene Hickerson

Bobby Boyd

Colts led by Gino Marchetti (89) swarm Jim Brown.

Jimmy Orr

Galen Fiss

Bill Pellington (36) tries to cut off Brown.


Lenny Lyles prepares to tackle Brown.

Brown on the loose.

Tony Lorick

Gary Collins snags TD pass.

Brown tries unsuccessfully to go over the top.

Unitas hands off.

Paul Wiggin

Lou Michaels

Even officials had to get out of Brown's way.

Unitas dejected.

Ryan carried off.

Police rescue Ryan.

• Quarter 1
  The Browns' opening possession started promisingly after Flea Roberts re­turned the kickoff to the 21. Runs by Ernie Green and Jim Brown totaled 10y and a first down. Soon, though, Cleveland faced 3rd and 17 thanks to a 3y loss and a delay of game penalty. But Frank Ryan hit Brown circling over the mid­dle. Jim snared the ball with one hand and rambled to the 46 for another 1st down. However, the next three plays gained only 5 more. So Gary Collins punted into the wind to Wendell Harris, who was downed on the 22.
  Collins, the WR who doubled as a punter, said cold weather never bothered him. It's because of my body temperature. My hands are never cold. My feet don't freeze. My temperature is usually between 96.8 and 97.2. Gary kept telling Ryan that, with the Colts double-teaming Warfield, he was open.
  The Browns "clamping" coverage had an impact immediately. Johnny Unitas dropped to pass but could find no one open and ran for a yard. But the Browns were called for holding. 1st-and-10 at the 27. Lenny Moore found an opening and burst to the 43. Once again, Unitas couldn't find anyone open and had to run to midfield. But on the next play, Jerry Hill fumbled, and Dick Modzelew­ski recovered for Cleveland on their 49.
  Baltimore, like most teams, was "right-handed." But early in the game, they lined up strong left more times than not. That meant they double-teamed Browns RE Bill Glass. Eventually, the Colts went back to their old ways.
  
  Lenny Moore tries to find running room.
  The Browns stuck to the ground, two runs by Brown sandwiched around one by Green gaining a 1st down at the 39. But on 3rd-and-5, Ryan threw long to Warfield, who slipped and fell. That allowed LB Don Shinnick to make an easy INT that he returned 14y to the 24.
  Brown recalled that the Colts took advantage of him when he was done. They kicked him in the ribs, tried to gouge his eyes. Someone stepped on his left hand, and Jim thought it was broken. It was numb for a while.
  The Colts started to move. First, Unitas gave the ball right back to Hill, the fum­bler, on a draw play for 2y. Then Johnny finally threw his first pass, connecting with Raymond Berry who got loose from S Ross Fichtner at the 43 and ran to the Cleveland 41. But on the next snap, Unitas couldn't find anyone open and ran again to the 25 where S Larry Benz banged him down. Colts radio an­nouncer Frank Messer observed that Unitas was "running more today than he has all season." Hill gained 3 as the fast-moving period came to an end. END OF Q1: Browns 0 Colts 0
  
  Brown skirts LE.

• Quarter 2
  The visitors squandered an excellent opportunity to get on the scoreboard first. After Moore gained only a yard, Unitas threw a quick pass to TE John Mackey who has dropped immediately by Fichtner at the 19. So Lou Michaels lined up a 27y FG. But Bobby Boyd fumbled the snap, picked it up, and tried to run but fell down at the 28 as the crowd roared.
  The Browns continued to move the ball primarily on the ground. After Brown gained 4, Ryan couldn't find a receiver and avoided the rush to the 35. He then pitched out to Jimmy who got the 1st down at the 39. Three straight runs by Green moved the chains again to the Baltimore 49. The relentless advance continued with Brown smashing to the 43. But then an illegal procedure penalty nullified a 10y scamper by Big Jim and made it 2nd-and-10. Ryan tried to pass, but Ordell Braase sacked him with the help of Gino Marchetti back at the 49. A conservative draw play call on 3rd-and-19 produced 3y. So Collins punted with the wind into the EZ with 6:46 showing. The high-scoring game many predicted was not transpiring.
  Unitas flanked Moore in addition to Berry and Jimmy Orr to spread the de­fense. First, he gave the ball to Hill on a draw and Jerry pushed to the 26. Next a safety valve toss to Moore backfired when 33-year-old LB Galen Fiss, spying on Lenny, clipped Lenny's legs out from under him for a loss of 5 as the crowd went wild.
  Fiss had broken his left thumb earlier in the season while making a clothesline tackle. Bernie Parrish recalled, They made one of those temporary casts and Galen used it to club people. I really think that Galen kept getting that hand taped long after the thumb healed. Fiss admitted, The cast did have its bene­fits. Slap people upside the head with that cast, you really get their attention. ... For games, we had to cover it with rubber and the officials inspected it, but it still was like a club. The cast went from my knuckles to about two thirds of the way to my elbow. The darn thing probably weighed two or three pounds, and by the time you swing your hand and land one, it's going to have an effect. Galen had also separated his left shoulder in college, and that injury never really healed.
  Parrish also played through pain every game. I was playing with Morton's Neu­roma on the ball of my foot. The doctors never quite figured it out. For four years, I took a novocaine shot in the ball of my foot on game day. If I didn't, I could barely walk, and the thing just hurt like hell.
  Then Johnny found Berry for a 1st down at the 33. On 3rd-and-5, Orr ran a slant-in from RE and made a leaping catch to the Cleveland 46 to continue the possession. Two plays later, though, Unitas threw to Mackey. Just as the big TE got his hands on the ball, he was hit, causing the pigskin to pop into the air and come down in the hands of Vince Costello at the 29.
  After the two-minute warning, Ryan found Collins to the 43 for a 1st down. But a holding penalty followed by offensive interference penalty derailed the march. Jerry Logan got a good return of Collins's punt from the 11 to the 29.
  The Colts tried to move into FG range but could get no further than their 36. They left the field stunned.
  HALFTIME SCORE: Browns 0 Colts 0
  
  Brown gains hard yardage.
  Art Modell's halftime show did not go as planned. He had paid $18,000 to fly in the Florida A&M band, which was known for its high stepping formations. Art promised Commissioner Rozelle that he would see a band that would put on a show unlike any he had ever seen before. Instead, the 180-piece band just walked on the field and played. Art, when will they do something? asked Pete. Soon, Modell said. But they never did. Afterward, the Browns owner confront­ed the band director. I saw you guys in the Orange Bowl, and you were all over the field. It was a great show. The band director said he wanted to showcase his school's excellent music department.

• Quarter 3
  Kicking with the wind, Lou Groza, a month away from his 41st birthday, boomed the ball beyond the end line. If the Colts made any offensive adjustments at half­time, they didn't work. An illegal procedure penalty mixed with two short runs and an incompletion forced T Tom Gilberg to punt into the wind. The ball went out of bounds on the Baltimore 48 - a 25y punt.
  
  Tom Gilberg punts.
  A second down screen pass to Brown moved the ball to the 38 for a 1st down. But a short run and two incompletions by Ryan under pressure brought out Groza, who boomed a 42y FG. Browns 3 Colts 0 (11:39)
  Following another touchback, Unitas tried to get something going. After an in­completion, he rolled out to his left to avoid the pressure only to be sacked at the 18 by Jim Kanicki, who was playing the game of his life.
  The next Sports Illustrated reported that Kanicki looks very much like an enormous baby with soft, pink cheeks and what looks like baby fat still on his 270-pound body.
  When a swing pass to Tony Lorick gained only 5, Gilbert kicked into the gale again but this time got off a good one that rolled all the way to the Cleveland 31.
  Brown took a draw handoff for 5. Then the Browns lined up in a double wing, with Green as a flanker to the left. The only man behind Ryan was Brown. RLB Shinnick cheated a little toward the middle. The DB opposite Green played 6-7y behind the line. Ryan tossed a quick pitchout to Jim swinging to his left. He swept around the pinched-in LB as Green knocked down Braase. Jimmy ran behind three blockers all the way to the Colt 18 where Logan made a game-saving tackle from behind. Green got up after his first block and raced downfield where he took out MLB Bill Pellington to help the 46y gain.
  Collier: We didn't use that sweep much in the first half. Maybe we were think­ing too much. It had gained a lot of yards for us during the season, and we knew the Colts knew it. So we didn't go to it in the first half. It was very effec­tive in the second half.
  Green: That play really got us going. We finally broke Jim loose, and we knew we were going to be all right.
  
  
  Brown breaks loose down the sideline.
  Ryan took the next snap, stepped up in the pocket, and found Collins open in the EZ behind the goal posts after he got away from Boyd and Logan. Browns 10 Colts 0 (13:34)
  Collins had noticed that Boyd was shading him toward the sidelines. So he broke the other way, heading for the goal post. Ryan had enough time to read the change and let fly. Five times that year he had hit a goal post. But this time, the ball went under the crossbar.
  Lorick made a bad decision on the kickoff when he tried to run it out from 1y into the EZ. Not only was he taken down by a necktie tackle by rookie Leroy Kelly - destined to replace Brown someday - but a clipping penalty moved the ball half the distance to the 6. After a 2y run, Unitas tried to pass but yet again ended up running, for 1y this time. He threw a short pass to Lorick who was felled at the 12. Gilberg wasn't so lucky on his punt this time, the ball going out 27y upfield on the Colt 39.
  Smelling blood, Ryan called a reverse, but Braase hit Brown as he handed to Warfield who was downed for a loss of 4. Undaunted, Ryan dropped back and lofted a high spiral with the wind toward Collins. Boyd slipped down on the dirt infield, and all Gary had to do was cradle the ball on the 5 and waltz into the EZ. Browns 17 Colts 0 (6:12)
  That play was called Hook & Go. Collins faked the hook to freeze the DB, then ran straight for the EZ.
  Ryan: This was probably the most important decision I had to make all after­noon. We had established tremendous momentum. The running was going; we had just gained 46y on a running play, and I was tempted to call another sweep. But maybe I would call a sweep into an outside blitz, and they would drop Jim for a long loss. Then I thought maybe we can go inside, but if they pinched in and cut off the inside we wouldn't gain, and the momentum could go from us to them. I knew they had been playing Gary Collins for a hook pass all afternoon. I decided to call a hook-and-go to Collins, and when he went he was open.
  Gary was so wide open, I had buck fever, said Frank. There was no one within 20 yards of him. I had the wind at my back. It surprises you when a receiver is that wide open, but it happens occasionally. I just had to make sure I got him the ball, because Gary could have caught it and walked into the end zone.
  Collins: When I faked, Bobby Boyd slipped and fell. When that ball was in the air, I kept thinking that if I dropped it, I had better catch a jet out of Cleveland right now.
  Boyd: We couldn't hear our calls. We blew one on that play, and we blew another one later. The guy who was supposed to take the middle deep took the outside.
  Unitas pulled out all the stops to produce some points. He started with his pa­tented down-and-out to Berry, who got away from Walter Beach, but for only 4y. Then a pitchout to Moore got a first down at the 31. Three straight runs moved the chains again to the 42. Two plays later, Johnny threw in a QB draw to the 47. A 3rd down pass to Moore was underthrown but defensive holding gave the Colts a 1st down at the Cleveland 48. And that's when disaster struck again. Moore never had control of the ball on the handoff from Unitas and fum­bled, Paul Wiggin covering the ball at the Cleveland 47.
  Browns defensive coach Nick Skorich explained his unit's success afterward: We crowded them. Especially when they were throwing into the wind and we knew that they could not throw long. We knew that the Colt pass patterns are built on precision and timing. We knew that if you take away the first receiver and force Johnny Unitas to go to a second or third you are forcing them out of a pattern, and, too, if you cover Jimmy Orr and Raymond Berry tight up close you force them to change their cuts and patterns and you take away the timing and the precision. ... And we got a strong rush inside, so he (Unitas) couldn't duck away from the rush from the ends and still find freedom to throw the ball.
  On 2nd-and-8, Billy Ray Smith, newly inserted at DT, hit Ryan but a tad too late, the pass going to TE Johnny Brewer to the 37. Then the Browns ran a beautiful sweep around RE. Jimmy followed his interference all the way to the 14, where DT Fred Miller chased him down from behind.
  END OF Q3: Browns 17 Colts 0
  
  Ryan passes before Shinnick arrives.

• Quarter 4
  When Warfield caught his first pass of the day to the 1, it seemed a foregone conclusion that the Browns would go up 24-0. But the Colts stuffed two straight plunges by Brown. Then Lou Michaels hit Ryan before he could handoff, drop­ping him at the 3. So Groza added the 3-pointer. Browns 20 Colts 0
  Would the goal-line stand light a fire under the Colts offense, which now had the advantage of the wind at their backs? Unfortunately for the visitors, the breeze had died down some.
  Against the wind, Groza's kick came down at the 18. Tom Matte returned the ball to the 29. The possession started badly for Colts, Unitas being sacked for -4. But he came back with a completion to Orr to the 42. He then threw a long pass that Jimmy dived and caught at the 15. But the officials ruled he was out of bounds. Bill Glass spilled Unitas for a 4y loss. An overthrown aerial to Orr ended still another sterile possession for the Colts.
  Starting from their 36 after Roberts's 14y punt return, the Browns could at least run some time off the clock. But they did much more than that. They moved smartly into Baltimore territory, thanks primarily to Ryan's 13y pass to Brewer and a pass interference penalty on Logan against Collins at the 35. A holding penalty back to the 49 threatened to take the starch out of the march. No problem, though. Ryan threw long again for Collins, the ball sailing just over the outstretched hand of Boyd who had Gary well covered at the 10. The 6'3" 210 lb WR escaped the grasp of the 5'10" 190 lb Boyd and ran through the EZ into a group of exuberant fans who engulfed him. A phalanx of policemen had to bail him out. Browns 27 Colts 0 (6:10)
  Logan misread the Cleveland formation on the play. He thought it was a strong right - a formation in which his zone coverage was short and outside - when it was actually strong left. In a Cleveland strong-left formation, Logan's coverage was deep and in the middle. When he left that area, Collins broke into it.
  The Colts never adjusted to help Boyd, who was an All-Pro DB. They held War­field to one catch but paid the price on the other side. When a receiver and quarterback have a day like that, we call it Pitch & Catch, said Warfield. That was Frank Ryan to Gary Collins.
  Even the Baltimore announcers agreed it would take more than one of Unitas's miracles to pull this one out. The only question was whether Unitas & Company could avoid their first shutout in 31 games. But in another case of "just when you think everything that can go wrong has gone wrong ...," Modzelewski deflected Unitas's pass, sending it into the hands of Beach who returned it to the Colt 43 with 4:50 left.
  The proud Blue and White defense finally forced a 3-and-out, with Marchetti having the pleasure of dumping Brown for a 10y loss. But even that satisfaction was negated by a holding penalty on the punt that gave Cleveland an automatic 1st down at the Colt 46. That allowed the Browns to run out the clock. The Colts, led by Marchetti, managed to bury Ryan when he threw one last pass. Frank climbed wearily to his feet. He had welts on his nose and cheek. Collier took out Collins, then Warfield to allow the crowd to cheer for each. With less than a minute to play, fans started coming out of the stands, attacking both goal posts, invading the field, and finally forcing the officials to end the contest early. They surrounded Ryan and hoisted him on their shoulders.
  FINAL: BROWNS 27 COLTS 0

The Browns' victory ended the seven-year reign of the Western Conference since the Giants beat the Bears in 1956.

Sports Illustrated's Tex Maule summarized the game like this: It was a bizarre game. Baltimore came to Cleveland as one of the finest offensive teams ever to win a divi­sional championship and left without having scored a point on the worst defense in the league.... But for this game, Cleveland became one of the great defensive teams of championship game history.