The 1957 Cleveland Browns season was the team's eighth season with the National Football League. They were 9–2–1 in the regular season and won the Eastern Conference title, but lost the championship game to the

Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit. The Lions compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) North Division. The team play their home games at Ford ...

, 59–14.

Season summary

The Browns missed the playoffs the previous season, ending ten straight years of league championship game appearances. The Browns came storming back in to finish 9–2–1 and win the Eastern Conference title by a relatively healthy margin over the defending world champion

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 club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

(7–5). The Browns took care of business against the Giants, "bookending," as it were, their arch rivals. They beat New York 6–3 in the season opener and then edged them again 34–28 in the finale. The Browns also posted two shutouts on the year, 24–0 over the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

and 31–0 over the Chicago Cardinals. The Eastern foe the Browns had the most trouble with was fourth-place Washington (5–6–1). Cleveland edged the Redskins 21–17 and then had to settle for a 30–30 tie in the rematch. The Browns fell to Detroit 20–7, making them 0–3 against the Lions in the regular season since joining the NFL in 1950. Although they had a rookie All-American running back out of

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

by the name of

Jim Brown James Nathaniel Brown (born February 17, 1936) is a former American football player, sports analyst and actor. He played as a fullback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL) from 1957 through 1965. Considered to be one ...

, the Browns were by no means an offensive juggernaut overall. The future Hall of Famer was outstanding, rushing for 942 yards and nine TDs, but he was the only real standout that year.

Tommy O'Connell Thomas B. O'Connell (September 26, 1930 – March 20, 2014) was an American collegiate and professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for three seasons. He played in 1953 for the Chicago Bears and in 1956 ...

, who had taken over for retired Hall of Famer Otto Graham in 1956 and was the quarterback during the 5–7 finish that year, had the job for most of the way in 1957 as well. He and rookie

Milt Plum Milton Ross Plum (born January 20, 1935) is a former American football quarterback who played for the Cleveland Browns (1957–61), Detroit Lions (1962–67), Los Angeles Rams (1968) and New York Giants (1969) of the National Football League (NFL ...

combined for just 1,873 yards passing 12 touchdowns with 14 interceptions.

Schedule

Exhibition

Regular season

:Note: Intra-division opponents are in bold text.

Standings

Postseason

NFL Championship Game

59, Cleveland Browns 14 Scoring * DET – FG

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austral ...

31 * DET – Rote 1-yard run (Martin kick) * DET – Gedman 1-yard run (Martin kick) * CLE – Brown 29-yard run ( Groza kick) * DET – Junker 26-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick) * DET – Barr 19-yard interception (Martin kick) * CLE –

Carpenter Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, Shipbuilding, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. ...

5-yard run (Groza kick) * DET – Doran 78-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick) * DET – Junker 23-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick) * DET – Middleton 32-yard pass from Rote (Martin kick) * DET Cassady-yard pass from Reichow (Martin kick)

Awards and records

* Jim Brown, NFL rushing leader, 942 yards * Tommy O’Connell, NFL leader, passing yards, (1,229)

Milestones

* Jim Brown, First Rushing Title

References

External links

1957 Cleveland Browns
at Pro Football Reference (profootballreference.com)
1957 Cleveland Browns Statistics
at jt-sw.com
1957 Cleveland Browns Schedule
at jt-sw.com

at DatabaseFootball.com
1957 Season summary and statistics at Cleveland Browns.com
Cleveland Cleveland Browns seasons Cleveland Browns {{Americanfootball-season-stub