December 16th, 2001. The air was a crisp and cold 44 degrees. Clouds shrouded the beautiful city of Cleveland in a steely gray blanket. The wind out of the south southeast at 8 mph. At 1:03 est. 72,818 fans watched Phil Dawson kick off to the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars. Elvis Joseph would return the kickoff for 21 yards before being tackled by Browns linebacker Wali Rainer. That would be the first play of one of the NFL’s most controversial, most dramatic and most notorious games ever played.
Several weeks earlier the Browns had gone into Jacksonville and walked away with their first victory over the Jags in franchise history, besting them 23-14 behind a fierce defensive performance.. Prior to that meeting the teams had met six times with the Jags dominating winning all six matchups with a combined score of 170-64. I don’t think we truly embrace the meaning of words sometimes. Like when we say, “that’s awesome!” when your four year old says, “Dad, watch!” and they hop from the bottom step to the ground without falling. Was it really extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear? Probably not. But when I say the Jags destroyed the Browns in the 2000 season outscoring them 75-7 (including a 48-0 blowout), I mean it by the words definition, to defeat (someone) utterly.
So when Phil Dawson booted in a 30 yard field goal with 5:13 left in our first matchup with the Jags in the 2001 season giving the Browns a 16-14 lead we were excited. And when Daylon McCutcheon housed a pick to ice the game we were ecstatic.
With the proverbial monkey off their back the Browns came into week 13 to play the Jags for the second matchup of the season.
Quick aside, I’m not a super young dude, but I’m not that old either. In doing research for this post I discovered the absolute horror show were the NFL divisions in 2001. When I was a kid back then, I didn’t think anything of it but man looking at these divisions is making my brain hurt. The Browns’ division had six teams in it. No other division had six teams. Just ours. Of course. All others had five teams. Oh, I’m sorry, the NFC East only had four teams. The Browns were fighting for their lives every year trying to fend off five other teams while the NFC East only had the Eagles, Redskins, the Giants and the Arizona Cardinals. Yes, the Arizona Cardinals. The team in Arizona was in the same division as teams that could touch the Atlantic ocean. And the NFC West had three teams East of the Mississippi River, Atlanta, Carolina, and New Orleans and two teams west of the Mississippi, San Francisco and St. Louis (remember the Rams had only recently moved to St. Louis from LA in ‘95). But the Mississippi river is the literal eastern boundary dividing St Louis, MO and Illinois. Thank God the NFL fixed that nonsense when the Texans showed up.
Anyway, back to it.
After opening up the season 4-2 the Browns came back from their week 7 bye to lose back to back games in heartbreaking fashion. First, an OT loss to the Bears that saw DB Mike Brown return a pick 31 yards for the game winning touchdown. Final score 27-21. This after the Browns had a 21-7 lead heading into the fourth. They followed up that loss with another OT heartbreaker. This time against the Steelers in a defensive struggle. Only one offensive TD was scored in the game (a pass from Tim Couch to O.J. Santiago) and included 9 combined sacks, four combined forced fumbles, and 15 tackles for loss. In OT Steelers kicker Kris Brown knocked in a 32 yard FG giving Pitt the 15-12 victory.
The Browns bounced back winning the next two against division rivals Baltimore and Cincy but dropped the next two against Tennessee and the eventual Super Bowl champions New England.
The Bottlegate game was another defensive struggle. 11 sacks (the Browns got 8 of them on Brunell), 3 interceptions (Browns Anthony Henry had 2 of them), 4 fumbles (all 4 were fumbles lost), 13 tackles for loss and 14 passes defended. All stats combined.
Again, only one offensive touchdown was recorded, which was a TD pass from Mark Brunell to wideout Jimmy Smith. A 97 yard interception return by Anthony Henry was the Browns only touchdown.
The juicy part of the game came late.
With 3:02 remaining, Jags Mike Hollis booted a 37 yard FG crucially extending their lead 15-10. With 2:49 left to play the Browns moved down field. Despite giving up two sacks on the drive the Browns found themselves on Jacksonville’s 12 with 1:08 remaining. Eyeing a potential game-winning touchdown and facing a crucial 4th-and-2, the Browns were in a do or die situation needing to convert or risking having to watch the Jags in victory formation.
QB Tim Couch dropped back and went through his reads before finding and connecting with Quincy Morgan on a slant in the middle of the field. A gain of three, as ruled on the field. A crucial first down.
The ball was swiftly placed on the line and Couch snapped the ball with just 50 seconds on the clock. With no timeouts remaining Couch quickly spiked the ball, stopping the clock with 48 seconds remaining.
This strategic move allowed the Browns to huddle to call their next play.
However, as play was stopped the refs huddled together for quite some time. Gus Johnson and Brent Jones, the CBS commentators who were calling the game, theorized the huddle may have been to review Tim Couch’s spike, as Couch had appeared to pump his arm twice, as if to fake the spike. Johnson and Jones wondered if the move could be potentially called for intentional grounding and a loss of downs.
Referee Terry McAulay emerged from the huddle and announced that the replay booth had signaled for a review of Morgan's catch before the spike play began, contradicting what anyone with eyes could see on the CBS broadcast, that the review signal came after the spike.
As the review was underway Browns fans all over the world knew what was going to happen. The call was going to be overturned and the Browns would lose the game in the most Browns way possible.
After some time the officials ultimately ruled that Morgan's fourth-down catch was incomplete. Which was accurate. Morgan had bobbled the ball and the ball had touched the ground. We can’t argue that. What can be argued however is that despite the play being ruled a catch on field and despite a play having been completed the refs reviewed a play that should not have been reviewable.
The result of the ruling gave the ball back to Jacksonville. Browns head coach Butch Davis expressed frustration by justifiably swearing a lot and criticized the officials' handling of the review.
The controversial ruling ignited a firestorm of anger among the Browns fans in attendance, particularly those in the infamous "Dawg Pound" section. Frustrated fans began to boo loudly and throw beer bottles onto the field. Miller Brewing Co. had recently introduced a new plastic bottle which had replaced plastic ups used for the sale of beer. Naturally, the bottles were heavier than the cups and when thrown traveled much farther than their cup counterparts, so that was convenient.
A few particularly unruly fans attempted to breach the field, but were swiftly apprehended by law enforcement. After a brief pause to allow the crowd to calm down, the field was littered with bottles and debris. Referee Terry McAulay made the unprecedented decision to end the game with 48 seconds still on the clock.
As players, coaches, and officials hurried off the field, they were met with a barrage of bottles thrown by angry fans. The chaotic scene underscored the intensity of the emotions surrounding the controversial game.
Paul Tagliabue, NFL Commissioner contacted referee Terry McAulay and pulled a Lee Corso, saying not so fast my friend you don’t have the authority to end the game prematurely, ya’ll need to finish the game.
The officials relayed this information to the players, many of whom were already in the locker room, undressed and showering. The players and officials returned to the field, over 20 minutes having passed since the controversial fourth-down play and Jaguars took two kneel-downs concluding the game with a final score of 15-10. Despite the controversy surrounding the early end of the game, referee McAulay maintained his claim that the replay booth had signaled for a review before Couch had snapped and spiked the ball.
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