On This Day in Sports History: “The Drive”

Yesterday on This Day in Sports History we had "The Catch", today we've got "The Drive", who knew these two iconic football plays occurred one day apart in history.

The Denver Broncos at the Cleveland Browns in the AFC Championship Game, the year was 1987. It was John Elway vs. Bernie Kosar at the quarterback position. As far as the head coaches go, Dan Reeves on the Broncos sideline and Marty Schottenheimer for the Browns.

"The Drive" began at the Broncos 2 yard line and the Browns lead 20-13 with about 5 and a half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. John Elway hadn't been great to this point in the game and needed to find some magic to get his team 98 yards to the opposite end zone.

All John Elway did was go 6/9 on this drive, passing for 70+ yards, and rushing for another 20. The biggest play was when Elway was sacked on a 2nd and 10 for 8 yards bringing about a 3rd and 18. The Dawg Pound was rocking, with Elway unfazed, he calmly dropped back and hit wide receiver Mark Jackson for a 20 yard gain.

Eventually, the Broncos would get down to the Cleveland five yard line, 42 seconds remaining, on a third down and one. From there Elway delivered the dagger by finding Mark Jackson once again for the tying score and capping what will forever be known as, "The Drive".

The one thing about "The Drive" was that it didn't win the game for Denver, all it did was tie the game at 20. The Browns still had a fighting chance.

However, the game would be sent to overtime and from there it would be the Broncos who prevailed on a 33 yard Rich Karlis field goal. The final was 23-20 and the Broncos were onto Super Bowl XXI, crushing the hearts of Browns fans, players, and coaches alike.

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