Copy of original post that was accidentally deleted
15 Jan 1967
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CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
Cleveland Browns 28, Kansas City Chiefs 13.
At Memorial Colosseum Los Angeles – Dry
Favourites Kansas began the championship decider the stronger opening the scoring with a Mike Mercer field goal in the first quarter. Shortly after both sides had to rapidly adjust their offensive strategies when first Kansas’s star RB Mike Garrett was side lined with an injury, then after a second Kansas FG, Cleveland’s Leroy Kelly replied with a short range td to put the Browns 7-6 up but suffered a horrendous injury when tackled in the end zone. Kansas were forced to punt after a clipping foul compromised the start of their next drive that allowed Cleveland good field position to exploit and ultimately extend their lead from Ernie Green taking up the RB baton. Chiefs QB, Len Dawson had a day to forget. His was picked for the first time as the Chiefs attempted to respond leading to a quick fire rushing td shortly afterwards that gave Cleveland a 21-6 advantage at the half time interval.
Kansas received the ball at the beginning of the second half but quickly turned it over following Dawson’s 2nd pass interception. Both defences then had a spell of domination until Kansas managed to drive into the Browns red zone for the first time. It was clear that Dawson’s confidence had been knocked as Kansas resorted to the rushing game attempting to bludgeon their way to the end zone. But the injury to Garrett was being keenly felt and the Browns defense held Kansas on their 3. Expecting a pass, Cleveland were caught out when Dawson succeeded with a trick play end around to flanker Otis Taylor. Kansas began to exert more pressure as momentum looked to be switching in their favour but following a Cleveland punt Dawson threw another interception. The Chiefs then attempted a pass rush but Browns QB Frank Ryan managed to elude his would be sacker and spotting an opening, scrambled into daylight for a td restoring the advantage to 15 points at the end of q3.
Nerves got the better of both sides offenses in the final quarter. First Cleveland’s Green fumbled the ball on the Chiefs 12 yard line when looking odds on to score. Dawson then led the Chiefs with an impressive display of passing before trying one too many and getting picked for the fourth time. After this, Cleveland managed to run down the clock and in doing so become the first world champions. Considering their injury woes throughout the campaign some would say a well deserved title at that
Cleveland Browns 0 21 7 0 – 28
Kansas City Chiefs 3 3 7 0 – 13
q1 05:20 – KC – Mike Mercer PK – 37 Kick
q2 13:15 – KC – Mike Mercer PK – 45 Kick
q2 09:05 – CB – Leroy Kelly RB1 – 3 Rush (Jim Houston Kick)
q2 05:25 – CB – Ernie Green RB2 – 4 Rush (Jim Houston Kick)
q2 02:15 – CB – Charlie Harraway RB4 – 9 Rush (Jim Houston Kick)
q3 07:30 – KC – Otis Taylor WR1 – 3 Rush (Tommy Brooker Kick)
q3 02:10 – CB – Frank Ryan QBA4 – 15 Rush (Jim Houston Kick)
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Concluding thoughts
I may give up making predictions in future about games as this yet again did not go to form or expectations. To be fair I had made my decision based on the strength of the Kansas DB‘s yet Cleveland’s were almost as good and in this game did by far the more effective job reducing Len Dawson to nervous wreck. The 2 early injuries to both starting RB’s on both sides made the choice of plays more predictable although the end around score is the first time I have ever succeeded with a td trying this out in some 35 or so years. A good game, not the best but enjoyable and even going into the 4th quarter Kansas could have turned it round. They were on the worse side of the FAC gods with regard to penalties on a few big gain plays that had they gone their way may have changed the result.
No doubt about it though, this campaign has definitely brought to the fore something I have been stubbornly resisting to acknowledge for a while, the original games injury rules. In the past I have been able to live with it as the campaigns I played were no more than 3 or occasionally 4 games for 1 or 2 teams at most. Playing a knockout has increased the number of games and injuries and with much smaller rosters wrought havoc. That said somehow the team with the most injuries managed to win the whole thing. Because of this I am still loathe to make too sweeping rule changes for the future. As noted before I’ll most likely begin with the playing while injured rule as well as adjusting endurance ratings of players who covering for an injured starter.
Next I plan to re- run this campaign as a parallel one that will seed teams not as before based on their real life regular season record but by a rolling record of Statis Pro wins. Once that’s complete it’ll be onto the 1967 season and Cleveland’s defense of the title. I won’t have finished with the ‘66 season then as in the hopefully not too distant future I have an idea to try to play every regular season of the Oilers commencing in their inaugural 1960 season if the cards ever become available. Undecided as to whether I’ll post future as it’s a lot of effort for not much return. Never say never.
keepituryens 