Sunday Dinner

The first time the Detroit Lions got their hands on the ball, they pushed all the way to the Cleveland Browns' 23-yd. line. Then Jungle Jim Martin came in and casually kicked a field goal. The Lions had used up just eleven plays and already they were out three points in front in the fight for the National Football League Championship.

Tired from a tough season that took them all the way through an extra-game play-off with the San Francisco Forty Niners, and lacking their first-string signal caller, Bobby Layne, out because of an earlier mauling from the Browns, the Lions had not figured on such an easy time. But it was even easier than easy. The Lions could not afford to lose another quarterback, so their blockers reared up and bounced the Browns out of range of Tobin Rote with ferocious energy. And Tobin Rote, Layne's alternate, lofted perfect passes that had Detroit ahead, 17-0, by the end of the first quarter.

When the Browns tried to pass their way back into the game, the alert Lion defense spoiled everything with timely interceptions. When the Browns ran--even when their great Rookie Jim Brown carried--jarring Detroit tackles forced costly fumbles. And when red-dogging Brown linebackers broke through on Lion Quarterback Rote, a fine fullback named John Henry Johnson was almost always there to take a hand-off and explode up the middle on spectacular draw plays. By the end of the half, the Lions were leading 31-7.

Whatever Cleveland Coach Paul Brown had told his men while they rested at the half, it worked for one series of plays. The Browns took the kickoff and pushed over a second touchdown. The irritated Lions clawed back and scored on the next play from scrimmage. Even when their walking wounded came in for the honor of running through a few plays, the Lions kept right on devouring the fresh beef from Cleveland. They were still at it when the gun proclaimed them point-a-minute champs, 59-14. No team in the history of the National Football League had ever run up so large a score against Coach Paul Brown's Browns.

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