1973 Cleveland Browns season

Last updated

1973 Cleveland Browns season
Owner Art Modell
General manager Harold Sauerbrei
Head coach Nick Skorich
Home stadium Cleveland Municipal Stadium
Results
Record7–5–2
Division place3rd AFC Central
PlayoffsDid not qualify
Pro Bowlers RB Greg Pruitt
DT Jerry Sherk
CB Clarence Scott

The 1973 Cleveland Browns season was the team's 24th season with the National Football League. After a solid 1972 season, which included a playoff appearance, the Browns got off to a solid start, winning three of their first four games on the way to a 7-3-1 start. However, the Browns did not win another game the rest of the season and settled for third place with a 7-5-2 record.

Contents

To date, the 1973 Browns along with the Kansas City Chiefs, Denver Broncos, and Green Bay Packers are the last teams to record 2 ties in a single season. Overtime for regular season games was introduced the following year, and the occurrence of tie games decreased.

The team did not wear their brown jerseys for any 1973 game, preseason or regular season. [1]

Offseason

Draft

1973 Cleveland Browns draft
RoundPickPlayerPositionCollegeNotes
116 Steve Holden   WR Arizona St
122 Pete Adams   OG USC
230 Greg Pruitt *  RB Oklahoma
247 Jim Stienke   DB Texas St
367Bob Crum  DE Arizona
493 Andy Dorris  DE New Mexico St
4100 Randy Mattingly   QB Evansville
6150 Van Green  DB Shaw
9228 Curtis Wester  OG Texas A&M-Commerce
10256 Tommy Humphrey   C Abilene Christian
11281 Carl Barisich   DT Princeton
12306Stan Simmons  TE Lewis & Clark
13334 Jim Romaniszyn   LB Edinboro
14359 Robert Popelka  DB SMU
15384 Dave Sullivan  WR Virginia
16412George Greenfield RB Murray St
17437Robert McClowry C Michigan St
      Made roster    †    Pro Football Hall of Fame     *   Made at least one Pro Bowl during career

[2]

Personnel

Staff / coaches

1973 Cleveland Browns staff

Front office

Head coaches

Offensive coaches

Defensive coaches

Special teams coaches

  • Special Teams – Al Tabor
  • Athletic Trainer - Leo Murphy


Final roster

1973 Cleveland Browns roster
Quarterbacks (QB)

Running backs (RB)

Wide receivers (WR)

Tight ends (TE)

 Offensive linemen (OL)

Defensive linemen (DL)

 Linebackers (LB)

Defensive backs (DB)

Special teams (ST)

Reserve


Rookies in italics

Preseason

WeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendance
1August 6 San Francisco 49ers L 16–270–1 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 65,707
2August 11at Los Angeles Rams T 21–210–1–1 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 54,385
3August 19 Cincinnati Bengals W 24–61–1–1 Ohio Stadium 73,421
4August 25vs. Atlanta Falcons W 20–172–1–1 Neyland Stadium 40,831
5September 1 Detroit Lions L 13–162–2–1Cleveland Municipal Stadium64,088
6September 8vs. New York Giants L 10–212–3–1 Rubber Bowl 30,751

Regular season schedule

WeekDateOpponentResultRecordVenueAttendanceRecap
1September 16 Baltimore Colts W 24–141–0 Cleveland Municipal Stadium 74,303 Recap
2September 23at Pittsburgh Steelers L 6–331–1 Three Rivers Stadium 49,396 Recap
3September 30 New York Giants W 12–102–1Cleveland Municipal Stadium76,065 Recap
4October 7 Cincinnati Bengals W 17–103–1Cleveland Browns Stadium70,805 Recap
5October 15 Miami Dolphins L 9–173–2Cleveland Municipal Stadium72,070 Recap
6October 21 Houston Oilers W 42–134–2Cleveland Municipal Stadium61,146 Recap
7October 28 San Diego Chargers T 16–164–2–1Cleveland Municipal Stadium68,244 Recap
8November 4at Minnesota Vikings L 3–264–3–1 Metropolitan Stadium 45,590 Recap
9November 11at Houston Oilers W 23–135–3–1 Houston Astrodome 37,230 Recap
10November 18at Oakland Raiders W 7–36–3–1 Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum 47,398 Recap
11November 25 Pittsburgh Steelers W 21–167–3–1Cleveland Municipal Stadium67,773 Recap
12December 2at Kansas City Chiefs T 20–207–3–2 Arrowhead Stadium 70,296 Recap
13December 9at Cincinnati Bengals L 17–347–4–2 Riverfront Stadium 58,266 Recap
14December 16at Los Angeles Rams L 17–307–5–2 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 73,948 Recap
Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Season summary

Week 1

Team1234Total
Colts077014
• Browns7107024
Scoring summary
Q1CLE Pitts 26 yard pass from Phipps (Cockroft kick)CLE 7–0
Q2BAL Speyrer 33 yard pass from Jones (Hunt kick)Tie 7–7
Q2CLECockroft 14 yard field goalCLE 10–7
Q2CLE Scott 45 yard interception return (Cockroft kick)CLE 17–7
Q3BAL Hendricks 2 yard blocked punt return (Hunt kick)CLE 17–14
Q3CLEPitts 8 yard pass from Phipps (Cockroft kick)CLE 24–14

[3]

Week 2

Week 3

Team1234Total
Giants0100010
• Browns006612
  • Date: September 30
  • Location: Cleveland Municipal Stadium
  • Game start: 1:00 p.m. EST
  • Game attendance: 76,065
  • Game weather: 62 °F (17 °C); wind 9 mph (14 km/h)
Scoring summary
Q2NYG Gogolak 20 yard field goalNYG 3–0
Q2NYG Tucker 20 yard pass from Snead (Gogolak kick)NYG 10–0
Q3CLE Cockroft 11 yard field goalNYG 10–3
Q3CLECockroft 27 yard field goalNYG 10–6
Q4CLECockroft 30 yard field goalNYG 10–9
Q4CLECockroft 10 yard field goalCLE 12–10

[4]

Week 4

Team1234Total
Bengals300710
• Browns077317
  • Date: October 7
  • Location: Cleveland Municipal Stadium
  • Game start: 1:00 p.m. EST
  • Game attendance: 70,805
  • Game weather: 60 °F (16 °C); wind 4 mph (6.4 km/h)
Scoring summary
Q1CIN Muhlmann 38 yard field goalCIN 3–0
Q2CLE Kelly 3 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 7–3
Q3CLEKelly 7 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 14–3
Q4CIN Curtis 60 yard pass from Anderson (Muhlmann kick)CLE 14–10
Q4CLECockroft 24 yard field goalCLE 17–10

[5]

Week 5

Week 6

Team1234Total
Oilers0013013
• Browns141401442
Scoring summary
Q1CLE Kelly 8 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 7–0
Q1CLE Phipps 1 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 14–0
Q2CLE Hooker 21 yard pass from Phipps (Cockroft kick)CLE 21–0
Q2CLE Pitts 3 yard pass from Phipps (Cockroft kick)CLE 28–0
Q3HOU Hinton 34 yard pass from Pastorini (Butler kick)CLE 28–7
Q3HOUButler 9 yard field goalCLE 28–10
Q3HOUButler 31 yard field goalCLE 28–13
Q4CLEPhipps 13 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 35–13
Q4CLE Scott 2 yard pass from Horn (Cockroft kick)CLE 42–13

[6]

Week 7

Week 8

Team1234Total
Browns30003
• Vikings3671026
  • Date: November 4
  • Location: Metropolitan Stadium
  • Game start: 1:00 p.m. CST
  • Game weather: 27 °F (−3 °C); wind 11 mph (18 km/h)
Scoring summary
Q1CLEDon Cockroft 27 yard field goalCLE 3–0
Q1MINFred Cox 16 yard field goalTied 3–3
Q2MINFred Cox 23 yard field goalMIN 6–3
Q2MINFred Cox 33 yard field goalMIN 9–3
Q3MINOscar Reed 3 yard rush (Cox kick)MIN 16–3
Q4MINStu Voigt 7 yard pass from Fran Tarkenton (Cox kick)MIN 23–3
Q4MINFred Cox 41 yard field goalMIN 26–3

[7]

Week 9

Team1234Total
• Browns1703323
Oilers033713
Scoring summary
Q1CLE Cockroft 30 yard field goalCLE 3–0
Q1CLE Phipps 1 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 10–0
Q1CLE Pruitt 53 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 17–0
Q2HOU Butler 27 yard field goalCLE 17–3
Q3HOUButler 46 yard field goalCLE 17–6
Q3CLECockroft 22 yard field goalCLE 20–6
Q4CLECockroft 45 yard field goalCLE 23–6
Q4HOU Alston 39 yard pass from Dickey (Butler kick)CLE 23–13

[8]

Week 10

Team1234Total
• Browns07007
Raiders00033
Scoring summary
Q2CLE Hooker 7 yard pass from Phipps (Cockroft kick)CLE 7–0
Q4OAK Blanda 23 yard field goalCLE 7–3

[9]

Week 11

Team1234Total
Steelers733316
• Browns770721
Scoring summary
Q1PIT Shanklin 9 yard pass from Gilliam (Gerela kick)PIT 7–0
Q1CLE Phipps 1 yard run (Cockroft kick)Tie 7–7
Q2CLE Pruitt 15 yard pass from Phipps (Cockroft kick)CLE 14–7
Q2PITGerela 24 yard field goalCLE 14–10
Q3PITGerela 14 yard field goalCLE 14–13
Q4PITGerela 20 yard field goalPIT 16–14
Q4CLEPruitt 19 yard run (Cockroft kick)CLE 21–16

[10]

Week 12

Week 13

Week 14

Standings

AFC Central
WLTPCTDIVCONFPFPASTK
Cincinnati Bengals 1040.7144–28–3286231W6
Pittsburgh Steelers 1040.7144–27–4347210W2
Cleveland Browns 752.5714–26–3–2234255L2
Houston Oilers 1130.0710–61–10199447L6

References

  1. ↑ "The Gridiron Uniform Database". www.gridiron-uniforms.com. Retrieved May 12, 2025.
  2. ↑ "1973 NFL Draft Listing – Pro-Football-Reference.com". Archived from the original on May 31, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2009.
  3. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
  4. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  6. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
  7. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  8. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  9. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
  10. ↑ Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
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