Oct. 26, 1964 - With losing football teams, disasters are compounded and fortune never smiles. So it was with the Giants in Cleveland yesterday as the team played its best football of this unfortunate season but still lost, 42‐20, to the Browns.
Cleveland’s victory (its fifth in seven games) and the St. Louis loss to Dallas put the Browns in first place — by one game — in the NFL’s Eastern Conference.
The Giants’ defeat, their fifth in seven starts, dropped them behind Washington and Dallas in the standing, and the defending champions find themselves in last place with the poorest record of any team in the NFL.
The Giants did not look like the poorest team in the league yesterday. The offense gained 426 yards, by far its highest production of the year, and moved all afternoon against the spotty Cleveland defense.
The Giants, who had won five of their last six games in Cleveland going back to 1958, entered the fourth quarter down by only a point, 14‐13. Then came the disasters.
Within the span of 4½ minutes, the Browns scored three touchdowns as a result of two fumble recoveries and an interception. Here is how it happened:
— Dick Lynch intercepted a pass by Frank Ryan, Cleveland’s unimpressive quarterback, on the New York 3 as the third period ended. On third down, Dick James swept left end but fumbled the ball backward as he attempted to leap over a Cleveland tackler. Paul Wiggin, the Browns’ defensive end, scooped up the ball on the 2 and rolled his large body into the end zone for the score.
— Next, Jim Houston, a Cleveland linebacker, intercepted a pass by Y. A. Tittle that had bounced off the shoulder of Steve Thurlow, a rookie Giant halfback. lt was Tittle’s third interception of the game but more of a bad break than an error.
Houston returned 44 yards to the Giant 31, and then Jim Brown, the Cleveland star, made his only big offensive gesture of the day, running 22 yards to the 9. From there, Ryan passed to Gary Collins for a touchdown, putting Cleveland ahead, 21‐13.
— Now, it was Clarence Childs’ turn to fumble, and he did so on the ensuing kickoff return at the New York 23. Charlie Scales, who has the effortless job of being Jim Brown’s understudy, picked up this fumble and raced 32 yards for another score.
All the good efforts by the losers, who were really trying, were undone by these three plays.
“I tell you, I liked our football club today,” said Giant coach Allie Sherman, as if he were a man who paid no attention to final scores. “We played a game. We played like we were going for the title instead of them.”
Allie continued to talk like a winner. But his Giants are losers — 1-5-1 and in the league cellar. Cleveland leads the Eastern Division at 5-1-1.
Blanton Collier, Cleveland head coach, had more legitimate reason to smile.
“We sure had difficulty stopping their inside running,” he said. “But I call our specialty units our hatchet men. They deserve the glory today, all the special tributes. They did it.”
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