Cockroft had an injury going into that game. So he couldn't kick the ball and missed several chances earlier that game. If the Browns maybe had put him on IR and signed a kicker the week before, maybe we wouldn't be talking about this. The Browns would have just ran it 3 times and then kicked the field goal, but that didn't happen. Mike Davis made a great play and gave the Raiders a chance for the Super Bowl chance in the AFC Championship game in San Diego.
Everybody blamed Don Cockroft, for missing FGs in that game, but the holder for placements for the Browns was rookie QB Paul McDonnell from USC. This guy caught placements all season without gloves on, but wore scuba gloves catching placement that day and fucked every placement up. The fact that that chump wore scuba gloves, and fucked up more than one placement during the game has never been sighted as the real reason the Browns lost that game. That and the fact that Sam really got beat on the cointoss when Flores choose the correct end of the field to defend. McDonnell was from Cali and was too cold to run out on the field that without gloves and poor placements on FGs was the reason the Browns would up calling Red Right 88. Cockroft never missed a game deciding FG in his entire Browns career.
In the Browns final regular season game the game prior to this game they lost on a Hail Mary to the Vikings and Ahmad Rashad on the last play of the game. What a way to close the year. Brian Sipe turned the ball over no less than 5 times that day. 3 INT's 2 lost fumbles. He actually fumbled 4 times that day.