Cleveland has only one win in franchise history as the road team against Detroit.
The Cleveland Browns head to Ford Field on Sunday to face the Detroit Lions and look to break one of the oddest streaks in NFL history.
This will be the 14th time the Browns have played the Lions in Detroit (or Detroit adjacent), which includes a pair of NFL Championship Games. Cleveland’s first road trip was in 1952; its most recent trip to Detroit was in 2017.
And in all that time, the Browns have only taken down the Lions once as the road team.
Think about that for a moment:
- Otto Graham, who led the Browns to seven titles and 10 title game appearances, was 0-2 on the road against the Lions.
- Frank Ryan, the last Cleveland quarterback to lead a championship team, was 0-2 on the road against the Lions.
- Bernie Kosar, who led the Browns to three AFC Championship Games, was 0-2 on the road against the Lions.
The lone time the Browns traveled to Detroit and came back victorious came in 1983, a season that saw the Browns come up just one win short of a divisional title.
After losing to the Minnesota Vikings to open the season, the Browns were in the Silverdome for a Week 2 matchup with the Lions.
Led by four touchdown passes from Brian Sipe and 137 rushing yards from Mike Pruitt, the Browns built a 28-17 lead midway through the fourth quarter. But the Lions fought back on a 15-yard touchdown pass by Gary Danielson and a safety when Sipe was tackled in the end zone to trim Cleveland’s lead to 28-26.
Cleveland’s Mike Whitwell picked off Danielson, and Matt Bahr followed with a 25-yard field goal to push the lead back to five. The Browns defense had to hold the Lions one more time and finished off the day by stopping Detroit on downs after Danielson drove the Lions to Cleveland’s 38-yard line with a minute remaining.
The Browns allowed 435 yards of offense to the Lions and committed 16 penalties in the game, but balanced that out by forcing five turnovers to earn that elusive first road win against the Lions.
Since then, the Browns have played the Lions five more times as the road team, with the last trip coming in 2017 when Cleveland turned a 24-17 lead late in the third quarter into a 38-24 defeat that was part of then-head coach Hue Jackson’s landmark 0-16 season.
Sunday provides the Browns with their latest chance to put an end to an inexplicable losing streak. And if they can come home with a win against a talented Detroit team, it may signal that this season is not the lost cause that many predicted.
Category: General Sports
