Cleveland Browns: Looking back at worst playoff loss in history

Fans of the Cleveland Browns have lived through historic and devastating losses over the past 51 years.

A blocked field goal in one game and Kellen Winslow being incorrectly ruled out of bounds in a different contest, two results that prevented the 2007 Browns from qualifying for the postseason.

The implosion of Brian Hoyer and the 2014 Browns that subsequently led to (another) regime change.

“Red Right 88.”

“The Drive.”

“The Fumble.”

None of them, as painful as they were, have been as demoralizing or heartbreaking as the 36-33 loss that the Browns suffered at the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 5, 2003.

So much about that day must be remembered to fully understand why this loss was so crushing for the Browns twelve years ago, and also to understand why it torments Cleveland fans to this day. It had not even been a decade since Art Modell had ripped the Browns from Cleveland to create the Baltimore Ravens, and yet the pitiful expansion Browns from 1999 had already become a distant memory. Cleveland fans were finally able to move from losing one of the most-storied franchises in National Football League history.

Kelly Holcomb went from being some journeyman quarterback who backed up No. 1 overall pick Tim Couch to a franchise starting QB who could tear defenses apart. William Green conjured up memories of former great Cleveland running backs. Dennis Northcutt was a play-maker reminiscent of Eric Metcalf. The defense of the Browns was solid, if not strong, in all aspects. Butch Davis was the right head coach to lead the Browns back to glory.

It was almost as if the Browns had never left Cleveland in the first place.

The Browns did not simply make it into the playoffs at the end of the 2002 NFL regular season. Cleveland was sitting at 8-7 heading into a Week 17 home showdown against the Atlanta Falcons. and the Browns needed a win to survive. The Browns were trailing Atlanta 16-10 after three quarters of play, but a Holcomb touchdown pass to wide receiver Kevin Johnson gave Cleveland a one-point lead halfway through the fourth.

Then, with 4:04 left on the clock, Green accepted a hand-off at the Cleveland 35-yard line. What followed is, to date, the greatest single play that the Browns have pulled off since what is now known as FirstEnergy Stadium opened its doors.

It was more than just a play for those who love the Browns. It represented a turning point and hope that wrongs of the past were being righted. Green twice could have been tackled short of the first down marker; but he wasn’t. The run became legendary thanks to Browns’ radio announcer Jim Donovan screaming “Run, William, Run!” into his microphone, almost as if he was intentionally willing something to happen as did Carlton Fisk on that famous World Series night.

More from Cleveland Browns

Green’s run will live on so long as highlights of the play exist, but what sometimes gets forgotten is that the Cleveland defense produced a goalline stop in the waning moments of the contest. The Atlanta offense was but a yard away from potentially tying the game with 30 seconds left, but the Browns would not be outdone on this day. Cleveland held on for the 24-16 victory, and a bright future for a city and a fan base in need of such promise was within reach.

The Browns making the playoffs was made even sweeter with the knowledge that Cleveland would have to travel to face the Steelers in Pittsburgh in the Wild Card round. What was once maybe the fiercest rivalry in all of the NFL had been eliminated by Modell moving the original Browns. Pittsburgh fans had, before Modell’s move was made official, even joined up with their sworn enemies in protests and marches, because they knew that something special was about to be lost.

The Steelers were understandably the better overall franchise of the two from 1999 up through 2002. Cleveland, after all, had to start over from scratch. That was about to change on the first Sunday of January 2003, however, as the Browns were going to show the NFL that pro football in Cleveland was a punchline no more.

Holcomb came out dealing from the opening drive of the game. He hooked up with Johnson for a completion of 83-yards that helped the Browns open up a 7-0 lead in under a minute of play. A 32-yard pass from Holcomb to Northcutt doubled Cleveland’s lead and silenced a stunned Heinz Field audience. Not even a 66-yard punt return taken to the house by Antwaan Randle El could stop the Cleveland juggernaut. The Browns sandwiched an additional ten points around the halftime break, and Cleveland possessed a 24-7 lead with 12:11 left in the third quarter.

It has, over time, been suggested that the Cleveland defense that had dominated the Pittsburgh offense went far too conservative. There is some merit to that take, sure, but that’s how teams with double-digit leads in second halves of playoff games handle such scenarios. The Carolina Panthers did so against the Seattle Seahawks on January 17, 2016.

Besides, the Browns 33-21 lead with around 10:00 left to play. Both the Cleveland offense and Cleveland defense were going against the clock as much as they were facing the Steelers. Green had been ineffective all game — he finished the contest with 30 rushing yards on 25 attempts — and so it would be up to Holcomb to ice away the win after Pittsburgh cut the Cleveland lead to 33-28 with 3:06 remaining.

Holcomb was up to the task. Facing a third-and-long that would define more than just Cleveland’s playoff hopes, Holcomb unleashed a beauty of a pass down the field for a streaking Northcutt. Pittsburgh cornerback Hank Poteat could not even get a finger on Northcutt as the spiraling football descended beautifully toward the Cleveland wide receiver. Time stood still as Cleveland fans began envisioning a playoff win over the Steelers that would represent a sparkling era for the Browns.

The unthinkable then occurred. Northcutt dropped the ball.

Cleveland fans know the rest.

True Cleveland diehards didn’t need to watch Pittsburgh quarterback Tommy Maddox go through the defense of the Browns like a hot knife through butter on the final meaningful drive of the game. The football gods that had routinely forsaken Cleveland in the past had again turned their backs to the Browns, unsympathetically offering no reprieve as Maddox and the Steelers delivered the final gut-punch that put Cleveland down for the ten count.

Every playoff loss hurts fans. A championship was neither won nor lost when “Red Right 88” was called. “The Fumble” merely prevented the Browns from tying the score late in the 1988 AFC Championship Game against the Denver Broncos. “The Drive” is still a sensitive topic for Cleveland fans, but those individuals are kidding themselves if they believe the Browns would have defeated the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXI.

For the Browns, the playoff loss to the Steelers in January 2003 is the crucifixion without a resurrection. It is Ralphie never getting his revenge on Scut Farkus. It is LeBron James never returning from South Beach.

More nfl spin zone: Who is the best NFL player from your state?

Davis was out as Cleveland head coach by the end of 2004 following rumors that he experienced a panic attack before a game. Green’s life and career fell apart. Holcomb reverted back to a pumpkin. The Steelers would go on to thoroughly own the Browns, so much so that the Ravens eventually replaced Cleveland as Pittsburgh’s top rival. Even when it seemed as if Cleveland had finally recovered in 2007, a collapse at Pittsburgh had a role in the Browns finishing one win outside of the playoff picture.

Failed draft picks and losing regimes. The Steelers becoming one of the top-notch organizations in the NFL. The Ravens winning a second Super Bowl. What has become a nightmarish timeline for the Browns all goes back to January 5, 2003.

To think what could have been had Northcutt caught the ball on that fateful day.

More: Pro-Football-Reference box score for the Browns at Steelers game

Home/Cleveland Browns

The Worst Playoff Loss in The History of the Cleveland Browns

By Zac Wassink | Jan 20, 2016

Fans of the Cleveland Browns have lived through historic and devastating losses over the past 51 years.