Faces in the Dirt

The Cleveland Browns, best in the eastern division of the pro football league, trotted onto Cleveland's Municipal Stadium field last Sunday to play the Detroit Lions, best in the West, for the 1954 football championship of the U.S. The game was figured close: the Lions, champs for the past two years, were the favorites by a slight margin. But the Browns went wild and won in a stunning, runaway upset. Score: 56 to 10.

Deceptive Preview. It was a special victory for Coach Paul Brown of the Browns, a cold, hard perfectionist who handles every game as if it were a strategic contest of coaches' brains. Although his crack passer and quarterback, Otto Graham, knows as much football as any player in the business, Brown minutely directs the strategy. He has won five straight eastern titles, but none of these was followed by a national championship.

And in eight games over four years with the Detroit Lions (four exhibitions, two league games, two national titles) Brown, up to last week, had never beaten Detroit.

Two weeks ago, in a "meaningless" league game that did not effect the league standings and had no bearing on the championship, the Lions had worked their old hex on the Browns, winning the game, in a driving snowstorm, by 14 to 10. Brilliant Quarterback Bobby Layne (TIME, Nov. 29), passing as if it were a calm, dry day, completed six passes in the closing minutes to put over the winning touchdown. This "preview," as it turned out, was highly deceptive. On the day of the championship this week, when they came to grips on the same field, the sun was shining, the ground was almost dry, and there was only a slight wind. The fireworks began instantly. On the first play after the kickoff return, Fullback Bill Bowman of Detroit reeled off a long run up the middle, to the Cleveland 33. On the next play, Detroit lost the ball on a fumble; on the next Cleveland lost it on an interception. Detroit scored first, on a 36-yard field goal by Halfback Doak Walker. After that it was almost all Cleveland, and almost all Otto ("Ottomatic") Graham.

Detroit's Last Gasp. It was probably the best football day that Graham ever had. Cleveland's first two touchdowns came on Graham passes--the first scoring passes he had ever registered against Detroit in a league or championship game.

Of Cleveland's first six touchdowns, three resulted from Graham passes, and three were carried over by Graham personally.

Detroit came to life momentarily in the second quarter: after a 52-yd. run by Lew Carpenter, and a Layne pass that put the Lions on the Cleveland four, Detroit's Bowman plunged over for the Lions' only touchdown. That was their last gasp. The Browns went for Layne mercilessly till he seemed almost out of action. A long pass by Graham, intended for Cleveland End Darrell Brewster, was knocked out of Brewster's hands but alertly grabbed in midair by Cleveland Halfback Ray Renfro. That set up the Browns' fourth touchdown, and the fifth followed when Renfro made a miraculous fingertip catch of a Graham pitch in the end zone.

In the closing stages, Detroit's Layne passed constantly and desperately, but Detroit could not score again. At last glacial Paul Brown had made it big. He had won his first "world championship"; he had wiped out the Lions' hex, and wiped the Lions' faces in the dirt. Not even reports of Otto Graham's retirement could spoil Coach Brown's day.

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