The Drive was an offensive series in the fourth quarter of the 1986 AFC Championship Game played on January 11, 1987, at

Cleveland Municipal Stadium Cleveland Stadium, commonly known as Municipal Stadium, Lakefront Stadium or Cleveland Municipal Stadium, was a multi-purpose stadium in Cleveland, Ohio. It was one of the early multi-purpose stadiums, built to accommodate both baseball and foot ...

between the

Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver. The Broncos compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC West, West division. The team is headquartered in E ...

and

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. The Browns compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team is named after ...

. Broncos quarterback

John Elway John Albert Elway Jr. (born June 28, 1960) is an American former professional football quarterback who spent his entire 16-year career with the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). Following his playing career, he then spent 1 ...

, in a span of 5 minutes and 2 seconds, led his team 98 yards in 15 plays to tie the game with 37 seconds left in regulation. Denver won the game in overtime by making a 33-yard field goal, pulling off a 23–20 comeback win over the Browns. The Broncos then advanced to

Super Bowl XXI Super Bowl XXI was an American football game between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion Denver Broncos and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion New York Giants to decide the National Football League (NFL) champion for ...

, where they lost to the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

, 39–20. The 98-yard drive ranks as pro football's prototypical clutch performance. Elway and his team spanned almost all of the 100-yard football field. According to an article by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'' columnist and Colorado resident

Rick Reilly Richard Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958) is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for ''Sports Illustrated'', Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008, where he was a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote t ...

, when Elway started the drive, Broncos

offensive guard Offensive may refer to: * Offensive (military), type of military operation * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative (Netherlands), Socialist Alternative * Fighting words, spoken words which would have a tende ...

Keith Bishop said of the Browns, "We got 'em right where we want 'em!" Cleveland could not force a fourth down against Denver. The Drive is commonly seen as emblematic of the Cleveland Sports Curse, and of the Browns' inability to reach the

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual History of the NFL championship, league championship game of the National Football League (NFL) of the United States. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966 NFL season, 1966 (with the excep ...

since its inauguration in the 1966 season (as of 2025, the Browns' last NFL Championship came in the 1964 season, prior to the Super Bowl era.) It is often mentioned in tandem with

The Fumble In American football, The Fumble is a play that occurred during the 1987 AFC Championship Game between the Cleveland Browns and Denver Broncos on January 17, 1988, at Mile High Stadium in Denver, Colorado. The fumble occurred late in the four ...

, which occurred in the following year's AFC Championship Game, also against the Denver Broncos, and again featured the Browns falling just short of appearing in their first Super Bowl.

Play-by-play

The Browns had jumped to a 20–13 lead and Denver had muffed the ensuing kickoff when Elway took over, first-and-10 on their own 2-yard line, with 5:32 to play in regulation. #First down and 10, Denver 2-yard line. Sammy Winder 5-yard pass from Elway. #Second down and 5, Denver 7-yard line. Winder 3-yard run. #Third down and 2, Denver 10-yard line. Winder 2-yard run. #First down and 10, Denver 12-yard line. Winder 3-yard run. #Second down and 7, Denver 15-yard line. Elway 11-yard run. #First down and 10, Denver 26-yard line. Steve Sewell 22-yard pass from Elway. #First down and 10, Denver 48-yard line.

Steve Watson Steven Craig Watson (born 1 April 1974) is an English football manager and former professional player who is manager of club Darlington. As a player, he was a right-back or midfielder. He played in the Premier League and Football League for N ...

12-yard pass from Elway. ##Two-minute warning #First down and 10, Cleveland 40-yard line (1:59 left). Incomplete pass by Elway, intended for Vance Johnson. #Second down and 10, Cleveland 40-yard line (1:52 left). Dave Puzzuoli sack of Elway, 8-yard loss. #Third down and 18, Cleveland 48-yard line (1:47 left).

Mark Jackson Mark A. Jackson (born April 1, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who was a point guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the St. John's Red Storm and was selected by the New ...

20-yard pass from Elway. #First down and 10, Cleveland 28-yard line (1:19 left). Incomplete pass by Elway, intended for Watson. #Second down and 10, Cleveland 28-yard line (1:10 left). Steve Sewell 14-yard pass from Elway. #First down and 10, Cleveland 14-yard line (:57 left). Incomplete pass by Elway, intended for Watson. #Second down and 10, Cleveland 14-yard line (:42 left). John Elway 9-yard run (scramble). #Third down and 1, Cleveland 5-yard line (:39 left). Mark Jackson 5-yard pass from Elway for the touchdown. Rich Karlis then adds the

extra point Extra, Xtra, or The Extra may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film * The Extra (1962 film), ''The Extra'' (1962 film), a Mexican film * The Extra (2005 film), ''The Extra'' (2005 film), an Australian film Literature * Extra (newspaper), ...

to tie the game.

Game summary

Officials

*Referee: Chuck Heberling (46) *Umpire: Gordon Wells (89) *Head Linesman:

Ed Marion Edward P. Marion (1927 – April 28, 2008) was an American official in the National Football League (NFL). Marion was in the league from 1960 to 1987 and officiated in Super Bowl V, IX and XI. He wore the number 26 for the majority of his caree ...

(26) *Line Judge: Bill Reynolds (53) *Side Judge: Gary Lane (120) *Back Judge: Ben Tompkins (52) *Field Judge:

Johnny Grier Johnny Grier (April 16, 1947 – March 8, 2022) was an American football official for 23 years in the National Football League (NFL) from 1981 to 2004. He began in the NFL as a field judge before becoming the first Black referee in the history ...

(23)

In popular culture

The Drive was featured in the movie ''

Hot Tub Time Machine ''Hot Tub Time Machine'' is a 2010 American science fiction comedy farce film directed by Steve Pink and written by Josh Heald, Sean Anders, and John Morris. John Cusack, Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, and Clark Duke star in the film as four ...

'', but due to the

butterfly effect In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions in which a small change in one state of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in large differences in a later state. The term is closely associated w ...

, Jackson was distracted by a squirrel and failed to catch a pass and Cleveland went on to win. It was inaccurately portrayed as being in 1986 (the game was played on January 11, 1987, though it was at the end of the

1986 NFL season The 1986 NFL season was the 67th regular season of the National Football League. Defending Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears shared the league's best record with the Giants at 14–2, with the Giants claiming the spot in the NFC by tiebreakers. ...

). The movie implied that it was played at night; however, when Karlis kicked the winning field goal in overtime, it was still daytime in Cleveland (the AFC title game was the early conference championship game that year, as the NFC title game between the New York Giants and Washington Redskins took place later and saw nearly the entire game played after the sun had set).

References

External links